Reliability and validity of ankle proprioceptive measures

Abstract

Deshpande N, Connelly DM, Culham EG, Costigan PA. Reliability and validity of ankle proprioceptive measures. Arch Phys Med Rehabil 2003;84:883-9. Objective: To determine the reliability and validity of ankle proprioceptive measures. Design: Reliability was assessed between test occasions. Construct validity was addressed by the ability of measures to differentiate among groups. Setting: Laboratory of an educational institution. Participants: Eight healthy adults were recruited into each of 3 groups: (1) young (20–39y), (2) middle-aged (40–59y), and (3) older adults (≥60y). Four subjects from each group (n=12) participated in retesting. Interventions: Not applicable. Main Outcome Measures: Threshold for perception of passive movement, error in active reproduction of position, error in reproduction of velocity, and error in reproduction of torque. Results: Intersession reliability was excellent (intraclass correlation coefficient [ICC] range, .79–.95) for threshold for perception of movement, error in active reproduction, error in velocity reproduction, and error in dorsiflexion torque reproduction; intersession reliability was good for error in reproduction of plantarflexion torque (ICC=.72). Threshold for perception of movement differed between groups 1 and 3 and between groups 2 and 3 ( P<.05). Error in reproduction of position was greater in group 2 than in group 1 ( P<.05). Conclusion: Differences in proprioception between the older and the 2 younger groups were best detected by using threshold for perception of passive movement.