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

INTRODUCTION: Smartphones 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.