Measurement of finger tapping performance using a smartphone application: a pilot study

[Purpose] Describe the measurement, reliability and validity of finger tapping repetitions recorded using a commercially available smartphone application (app). [Participants and Methods] We tested a convenience sample of 12 young right-handed participants who completed unilateral index finger tapping and peg board completion tasks with each hand. [Results] Measurement of finger tapping performance was practicable and was shown to be acceptably reliable and able to distinguish between performance of the dominant versus nondominant hand. Finger tapping was not correlated with pegboard performance. [Conclusion] A small sample of young adults showed that measures of finger tapping were easily obtained using a smartphone app. The measures demonstrated acceptable reliability and known groups validity. They, however, may not reflect performance at other measures of voluntary movement functions.