Reproducibility of performance and certainty of judgment in maximal vs feigned muscular effort.

Abstract

Detection of feigned muscular effort is a highly challenging topic in the medicolegal arena. Modern dynamometric methods have enabled a much higher accuracy in deciding whether the effort in question is indeed genuine or submaximal. Since in feigning the target, however, performance may fluctuate even within a single testing session, reproducibility cannot be assured. In actual claims, the statistical nature of certainty in proclaiming a feigned effort must be well understood by those involved in deciding the fate of a claim.