Support for a Reduction in the Number of Trials Needed for the Star Excursion Balance Test

Abstract

Robinson RH, Gribble PA. Support for a reduction in the number of trials needed for the Star Excursion Balance Test. Objective To determine the number of trials necessary to achieve stability in excursion distance and stance leg angular displacement for the 8 directions of the Star Excursion Balance Test (SEBT). Design One-way repeated-measures analysis of variance. Setting Athletic training laboratory. Participants Twenty participants (10 men, 10 women) without any known musculoskeletal injuries or neurologic deficits that could have negatively affected their dynamic balance volunteered for the study. Intervention Participants completed 6 practice and 3 test trials in each of the 8 reach directions of the SEBT. Main Outcome Measures Excursion distances of the reaching leg normalized to leg length and angular displacement at the hip and knee of the stance leg in all 3 planes of movement were determined. Results There were significant increases in excursion distance, hip flexion, and knee flexion for 7, 4, and 5 of the 8 reach directions, respectively. Conclusions For the majority of the reach directions, maximum excursion distances and stance leg angular displacement values achieved stability within the first 4 practice trials, thus justifying a reduction in the recommended number of practice trials from 6 to 4 and supporting the trend toward simplifying SEBT administration.