Reliability of Kinovea software in measuring spatial parameters associated with perturbation training

Abstract

Kinovea is a low-cost 2D motion analysis software. The main objective of this study is to examine the performance of Kinovea to compute spatial parameters related to perturbation training as it is not yet studied, allowing a less computational cost analysis of reactive stepping made possible. Thirty-eight healthy young adults performed the Lean and release perturbation technique to produce spatial parameters such as the Step length (SL), Step width (SW), and Leg angle (LA). The Intra-class Correlation Coefficient (ICC(3,1)) quantified the intra- and inter-rater reliability. The Standard Error of Measurement (SEM), SEM% and Minimal Detectable Change (MDC95) for the 95% confidence interval is estimated to find the absolute reliability. The Bland-Altman plot of intra-rater reliability is computed to find the limit of agreement. The results suggest that the Kinovea software is a reliable tool that can produce original values with acceptable error while repeating the analysis. Kinovea software’s excellent ICC(3,1) value, absolute reliability, and low MDC95 value suggests that the software may be a valuable tool to analyze and provide a reliable output related to perturbation training.