| Sumario: | The purpose of this study was to investigate the intrarater reliability of manual muscle assessment of the hip and shoulder using a modified sphygmomanometer. In addition, it was intended to establish a preliminary database of values from normal, healthy male and female volunteers. Eighty subjects participated in the test sessions, 40 males and 40 females between the ages of 19-22. Forty subjects participated in each of the hip and shoulder test sessions. Each examiner tested different paired movements on the subjects in one single session for the two separate joints. The tested movements consisted of hip extension, flexion and abduction and shoulder abduction, extension, flexion, internal and external rotation. All movements were tested by the patient- initiated method. Each movement was repeated twice, with a 30-35 second rest interval between the trials. The results showed that the intratester reliability coefficients for the hip ranged from 0.94-0.97, while, for the shoulder, the range was 0.86-0.97. Norms are expressed as mean (SD) values. These data conformed to previously established expectations, in that side-to-side differences were less than 10% and test values for males were larger than females in all tests. It was concluded that manual muscle assessment using a modified sphygmomanometer has acceptable intra-examiner reliability for the hip and shoulder when using the patient-initiated method.
|
|---|