Interrater and Intrarater Reliability of the EasyForce Dynamometer for Assessment of Maximal Shoulder, Knee and Hip Strength.

Nejc Šarabon,Nebojša Trajković,Darjan Smajla,Žiga Kozinc

doi:10.3390/diagnostics12020442

Nejc Šarabon, Nebojša Trajković

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/diagnostics12020442

Copy DOI

Abstract

This study aimed to determine the interrater and intrarater reliability of EasyForce dynamometer for assessing shoulder, knee, and hip muscle strength in healthy young adults. Shoulder, knee, and hip maximal isometric strength were measured using the EasyForce in healthy adults (11 women and 12 men). Three repetitions of shoulder internal rotation, abduction, knee flexion, extension, and hip abduction and adduction were performed. The tests were performed by three raters on the same day. The results showed good to high inter- and intrarater reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient range: 0.63–0.91). Moreover, the absolute reliability of the EasyForce was slightly higher than acceptable for all tests (CV > 10%) except for hip abduction on the right leg (CV = 7.2%). The EasyForce dynamometer can be considered a reliable tool for assessing shoulder internal rotation and abduction, knee extension and flexion, as well as hip abduction and adduction strength. The EasyForce dynamometer showed no differences between the raters’ measurements, which could be of great importance for professionals who want to perform the tests regardless of their strength on the values.

Highlights

Received: 8 January 2022The assessment of muscle strength has received a lot of research attention in areas where it is important to analyze the health and physical status of individuals [1]
Legend: shouder IR—shoulder internal rotation; CI—confidence interval; TE—typical error; coefficient of variation (CV)—coefficient of variance
Shoulder IR, shoulder internal rotation; CI, confidence interval; TE, typical error; CV, coefficient of variance

Summary

Introduction

Received: 8 January 2022The assessment of muscle strength has received a lot of research attention in areas where it is important to analyze the health and physical status of individuals [1]. Muscle strength assessment is primarily done for the purpose of setting normative standards for inclusion in certain sports [2,3], identifying and selecting potential talents [2], improving physical performance [4], or determining the effects of the training process [5]. The two most commonly used methods for assessing muscle system functionality are the manual muscle test (MMT) and an isokinetic dynamometer [4,6,12,13,14,15]. Existing research has agreed that this method is inexpensive, fast, and easy to perform, but has failed to explore deficiencies in larger muscle groups [16] and minor strength deficits in relation to normal

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion