Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 9, 2026
Quantified Assessment of Infant's Gross Motor Abilities Using a Multisensor Wearable
Published on: May 17, 2024
Feasibility of the Baby Moves app for remote General Movements Assessment: a prospective observational cohort study
Ginevra Costagli1, Lucia Rocchitelli2,3, Olena Chorna2
1Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy ginevra.costagli@fsm.unipi.it.
Objective:
To evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of the Baby Moves smartphone application for remote General Movements Assessment (GMA) in an Italian cohort of at-risk and healthy term infants.
Design:
Prospective observational feasibility cohort study.
Setting:
Home-based study, parents using a smartphone app.
Patients:
A total of 199 infants were recruited between 2021 and 2024, including 85 at-risk infants and 114 healthy term infants. Eligibility for at-risk infants included being born preterm (<36 weeks) and/or with neonatal neurological risk conditions and healthy term infants born >37 weeks. Infants with lethal anomalies were excluded.
Interventions:
Parents used the Baby Moves app to upload six 3-minute videos of their infant's spontaneous movements from 10 to 20 weeks post-term age. Videos were assessed by certified GMA evaluators blinded to clinical history.
Main Outcome Measures:
Feasibility, defined a priori as submission of ≥3 videos between 10 and 20 weeks, including ≥1 during the fidgety period (12-16 weeks). Secondary outcomes included number and quality of videos, associations with parental sociodemographic factors and parental acceptability.
Results:
App uptake was high: 91.9% (183/199) downloaded and activated the app, and 182 families (91.5%) submitted at least one video. Across the cohort, the mean number of uploaded videos was 4.3. More than half of the sample (58.3%) submitted ≥5 videos. Families of healthy term infants uploaded more videos than at-risk infants (mean 4.6 vs 3.8). Sociodemographic variables showed no clinically meaningful associations with submission rates. Parental survey data (n=135) indicated high usability and acceptability, with reported challenges mainly related to connectivity or infant state during recording.
Conclusions:
The Baby Moves app is feasible and acceptable for remote GMA in an Italian setting. High engagement across both at-risk and control families supports integration of app-based GMA into early neurodevelopmental pathways, helping overcome geographical and logistical barriers to timely assessment.
Trial Registration Number:
NCT06278961.
