A study to determine the reliability of an ankle dorsiflexion weight-bearing device

Objectives

To investigate the inter-observer and intra-observer reliability of measurement of ankle movement during a weight-bearing dorsiflexion lunge in healthy and injured groups.

Setting

Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre, UK.

Participants

Seventeen healthy subjects, 11 subjects with ankle injuries and three trained observers.

Design

Each observer assessed subjects on two separate test days, 7 days apart. Each measurement was repeated six times and the results were averaged. Limits of agreement and intra-class correlation coefficients were calculated to give a measure of reliability.

Main outcome measures

A measurement tool designed at the Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre, UK.

Results

Intra-observer 95% limits of agreement ranged from ±3.30 to ±3.66 cm for the healthy group and from ±2.35 to ±3.85 cm for patients. The inter-observer limits of agreement ranged from ±1.57 to ±2.65 cm for healthy subjects and from ±0.87 to ±3.46 cm for patients.

Conclusions

Results indicate acceptable inter-observer and intra-observer reliability for use of this rehabilitation assessment tool to measure the weight-bearing dorsiflexion lunge range of ankle motion when results are averaged over six repetitions.