Interaction with touchscreen smartphones in patients with essential tremor and healthy individuals.

INTRODUCTION

Smartphone use in biomedical research is becoming more prevalent in different clinical settings. We performed a pilot study to obtain information on smartphone use by patients with essential tremor (ET) and healthy controls, with a view to determining whether performance of touchscreen tasks is different between these groups and describing touchscreen interaction factors.

METHOD: A total of 31 patients with ET and 40 sex- and age-matched healthy controls completed a descriptive questionnaire about the use of smartphones. Participants subsequently interacted with an under-development Android application, and performed 4 tests evaluating typical touchscreen interaction gestures; each test was performed 5 times.

RESULT: The type of smartphone use and touchscreen interaction were not significantly different between patients and controls. Age and frequency of smartphone use are key factors in touchscreen interaction.

CONCLUSION

Our results support the use of smartphone touchscreens for research into ET, although further studies are required.