RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY OF NEWLY DEVELOPED REACTION TIME ANALYZER MACHINE

M. Rathi¹, B. Ambudkar²

¹Dr. D. Y. Patil College of Physiotherapy, Dr. D. Y. Patil Vidyapeeth, Department of Community Physiotherapy, Pune, India, ²Dr. D. Y. Patil Institute of Technology, Pimpri, Department of Electronics and Telecommunication, Pune, India

Background: Reaction time is the time interval between the presentation of a stimulus and the initiation of a response, in seconds and minutes. Reacting instantly to visual/auditory/any stimulus is very important. Delayed or impaired Reaction time can lead to injury and also affects daily activities as well as Quality of Life (QoL). Identifying the exact time taken by initiating/completing specific task is challenge in physiotherapy assessment. Instruments like Balance master or tests like Ruler Drop test, TUG - available with limitations Hence “Response Analyzer of Sensory Motor Interaction (RASMI)” was developed which assesses reaction time of functional activities involving sitting to walking components.

Purpose: To assess the inter-rater reliability and Intra-rater reliability of the newly developed reaction time analyzer equipment and to find out validity of the same equipment to assess the reaction time using Ruler Drop Test, Timed Get-up and Go Test and Neurocom Balance Master.

Methods: Approval was obtained from Ethics Committee of Dr. D. Y. Patil Vidyapeeth, Pune with Ref. No.DYPV/EC/116 dated 04/09/2018. An equipment was designed with 12’X2’ dimensions having Chair, walking platform, display for recording time, Speaker for auditory, bulb for visual clues and stop button. Sensors are placed appropriately to catch signals at various points which records reaction time of initiation of standing position, completion of standing position, taking first-second-third step and putting the button off. In this observational study, 120 participants were selected between the age of 40-60 years. All participants performed two tests (Visual and Auditory) using newly developed equipment, also reaction time using balance master, Ruler drop test and timed get up and go test (TUG). Inter rater Reliability and Intra rater reliability was assessed. Concurrent Validity was assessed with Balance master using component limits of stability (Reaction Time in ms.) , Ruler Drop test ( Distance measured in mm) and TUG ( in Sec. )The data was analyzed using SPSS software (version 20).

Results: Reaction time of various Functional activities assessed using newly developed equipment showed high reliability with the ICC =0.846-0.912 and p<0.05. It also showed good to excellent validity when compared with limits of stability component using balance master with r=0.78 and p<0.05, Ruler drop test having r=0.84 and p<0.05 and using timed get-up and go test with r=0.758 and p<0.05.

Conclusions: The newly developed Reaction Time Analyzer is a reliable and valid equipment to assess reaction time of various Functional activities.

Implications: It is cost effective, reliable and valid equipment and checks upper and lower body reaction time by giving auditory and visual stimuli. Therapist can assess reaction time of various functional tasks accurately and objectively and also finds the

Funding acknowledgements: I thank Dr. D. Y. Patil Vidyapeeth, Pune, India for providing seed Money to conduct this research study.

Keywords:
Reaction Time
Elderly
Balance

Topics:
Innovative technology: information management, big data and artificial intelligence
Older people
Health promotion & wellbeing/healthy ageing/physical activity

Did this work require ethics approval? Yes

Institution: Dr. D. Y. Patil College of Physiotherapy, Pune, India

Committee: Ethics Committee, Dr. D. Y. Patil Vidyapeeth, Pune, India

Ethics number: DYPV/EC/116 dated 04/09/2018