Abstract
Objectives
To investigate the inter-observer and intra-observer reliability of measurement of ankle movement during a weight-bearing dorsiflexion lunge in healthy and injured groups.
Setting
Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre, UK.
Participants
Seventeen healthy subjects, 11 subjects with ankle injuries and three trained observers.
Design
Each observer assessed subjects on two separate test days, 7 days apart. Each measurement was repeated six times and the results were averaged. Limits of agreement and intra-class correlation coefficients were calculated to give a measure of reliability.
Main outcome measures
A measurement tool designed at the Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre, UK.
Results
Intra-observer 95% limits of agreement ranged from ±3.30 to ±3.66cm for the healthy group and from ±2.35 to ±3.85cm for patients. The inter-observer limits of agreement ranged from ±1.57 to ±2.65cm for healthy subjects and from ±0.87 to ±3.46cm for patients.
Conclusions
Results indicate acceptable inter-observer and intra-observer reliability for use of this rehabilitation assessment tool to measure the weight-bearing dorsiflexion lunge range of ankle motion when results are averaged over six repetitions.
Citation
A study to determine the reliability of an ankle dorsiflexion weight-bearing device
R. Jones, J. Carter, P. Moore, A. Wills
Physiotherapy - December 2005 (Vol. 91, Issue 4, Pages 242-249, DOI: 10.1016/j.physio.2005.04.005)