Validation of sway balance application in assessment of balance disorders in patients post lower limb burn

Background: Lower extremity burns are widespread in burn centers, either lower limb burns alone or associated with burns in other parts of the body. Using of smartphone applications (SWAY) designed for balance assessment, which had the advantage of being portable, easy to apply, and available.Purpose: To determine the concurrent validity of sway mobile application for assessment of balance in patients with lower limb burn.Material and Methods: Sixty-one patients diagnosed with post lower limb burn from both genders with age between 20-50 years, with 2nd and 3rd degree of burn, were recruited to this study. SWAY Balance Mobile Application and Balance Error Scoring System (BESS) were both administered during one testing session. The order of assessment of SWAY Balance Mobile Application and BESS was randomized and separated by two minutes during the session.Results: For concurrent validity the correlation between SWAY Balance Mobile Application index and total BESS was a moderate negative significant correlation (r = -0.534, p = 0.009).Conclusion: Smartphone application "Sway Balance Mobile Application" is a valid alternative for Balance Error Scoring System in assessing balance in patients with post lower limb burn as it has interesting features more than the laboratory instruments as it is portable and patient can do by himself, not difficult to use and doesn't need any practice in comparison with BESS . I hope that in future research, researchers will discuss "Sway Balance Mobile Application" in more diseases and at different ages.