Self-Movement Screening using the Symmio Application is Reliable and Valid for Identifying Musculoskeletal Risk Factors

Abstract

Background Musculoskeletal health problems are one of the greatest healthcare expenses in the United States but patient-driven screening procedures to detect risk factors do not exist. Hypothesis/Purpose The purpose was to establish the inter-rater reliability of the Symmio Self-Screen application in untrained individuals and to investigate its accuracy to detect MSK risk factors such as pain with movement, movement dysfunction, and decreased dynamic balance. Study Design Cross-Sectional Methods Eighty (42 male, 38 female) healthy individuals mean age 26.5 ± 9.4 participated in the study. The inter-rater reliability of Symmio application was established by comparing self-screen scores from untrained subjects with the results simultaneously determined by a trained healthcare provider. Each subject was evaluated for pain with movement, movement dysfunction, and deficits in dynamic balance by two trained evaluators who were blinded to the Symmio results. The validity of Symmio was determined by comparing self-screen performance dichotomized as pass or fail with the reference standard of pain with movement, failure on the Functional Movement Screen™, and asymmetry on the Y Balance Test-Lower Quarter™ using three separate 2x2 contingency tables. Results The mean Cohen’s kappa coefficient was 0.68 (95% CI, 0.47-0.87) and the absolute agreement was 89% between self-assessment of subjects and the observation of a trained healthcare provider. There were significant associations for the presence of pain with movement (p=0.003), movement dysfunction (p=0.001), and dynamic balance deficits (p=0.003) relative to poor Symmio performance. The accuracy of Symmio to identify pain with movement, movement dysfunction, and dynamic balance deficits were 0.74 (95% CI, 0.63-0.83), 0.73 (95% CI, 0.62-0.82), and 0.69 (95% CI, 0.57-0.79), respectively. Conclusions The Symmio Self-Screen application is a reliable and feasible screening tool that can be used to identify MSK risk factors. Level of Evidence Level 2