ABSTRACT

Year : 2022  |  Volume : 6  |  Issue : 2  |  Page : 80

Physiotherapy in Musculoskeletal conditions: AB No: 12: Clinical Tests used to measure Positional Faults of the Shoulder Girdle: A Reliability Study

Neeraj Singh¹, Pragya Kumar², Raju Parashar^3
1 MGM Allied Health Sciences Institute (MAHSI), MGM Medical College, Indore, M.P
² Amity University
³ Amar Jyoti Institute of Physiotherapy

Correspondence Address:

Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None

DOI: 10.4103/2456-7787.361074

Purpose: Sustained, repetitive, prehensile activities that require precision and stability, necessitate a sustained static shoulder girdle posture over long periods of time, which can results in abnormal activation of the shoulder girdle musculature and consequent scapular misalignments. Relevance: This study was to establish test-retest and inter tester reliability of six clinical tests commonly used to measure parameters related to shoulder girdle positional faults and or asymmetries. Participants: A convenience sample of 50 healthy 18–25-year-old, male college students were evaluated on the following tests: Pectoralis minor index, Lateral scapular slide test, Posterior capsular tightness, Forward shoulder posture, cervical range of motion and shoulder muscle Isometric strength. Methods: Participants were tested twice one week apart by one tester for test- retest reliability and for inter-rater reliability four testers measured participants on each test independently. Analysis: Intra class correlations (ICC) were calculated across trials (test-retest) and across testers (inter-rater) in a repeated measure ANOVA. Result: Test-retest ICC for forward shoulder posture was 0.998, while the inter-rater reliability was 0.628. Cervical range of motion test-retest reliability ranged from 0.987 to 0.999, while inter-rater reliability was 0.281 to 0.619. Test-retest reliability values for isometric shoulder strength were excellent (0.986–0.997), however the inter-tester values were in the poor range (0.31–0.34). Test-retest ICC values for Pectoralis minor index (0.982 to 0.984), Lateral scapular slide test (0.997- 0.969) and Posterior Capsular Tightness (0.967 to 0.974) were found to be excellent but Inter-rater and reliability values were in the poor to moderate range. Conclusion: Clinical tests used to measure parameters relevant to shoulder girdle positional faults and or asymmetries met the criteria for excellent test-retest reliability by one tester. Implications: It is thus recommended that these tests can be reliable used by a single tester over several trials.

Keywords: Inter rater Reliability, Test-retest reliability, Shoulder girdle, Clinical test, Positional fault