The excellent pain-relief effect of high-intensity transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) revealed by subjective and objective indicators

Abstract

absence of control. Two physiotherapists carried out tests and retests and scored the child in the live situation as well as on the basis of video recordings. Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Test, ICC [2,1] and a descriptive measure for absolute reliability were used in the statistical analyses. Results: No systematic differences were found in scores between tests and retests with the exception of one rater’s reactive scores. All ICC values were excellent (ICC≥ 0.9) with the exception of one rater’s reactive scores. Complete agreements were seen in 73% of all scores between raters, days or between live versus video. In themajority of cases the scores with disagreement showed an absolute difference corresponding to one SATCo level for static, active and reactive scores respectively. Conclusion(s): This study shows that the relative reliability of the SATCo test is generally excellent. However, scores between raters, days or between live versus video differ by one or more levels in 27% of all separate analyses. This should be considered when using SATCo as a clinical outcome measure. Implications: SATCo is a relevant assessment tool with potential for implementation in clinical practise. Further refinements could increase the reliability of themeasure. This would increase the value of this test in research and in clinical practise.