Interexaminer reliability of the deltoid and psoas muscle test

J Manipulative Physiol Ther. 2005 Jan;28(1):52-6. doi: 10.1016/j.jmpt.2004.12.008.

Abstract

Objective: To determine if 2 practitioners of differing skill levels could reliably agree on the presence of a weak or strong deltoid or psoas muscle.

Study design: Interexaminer reliability study of 2 common muscle tests.

Main outcome measures: Cohen kappa (unweighted) scores, observer agreement, and 95% confidence intervals (CIs).

Results: The results showed that an experienced and a novice practitioner have good agreement when using repeated muscle test procedures on the deltoid ( kappa 0.62) and the psoas ( kappa 0.67).

Conclusions: The manual muscle test procedures using the anterior deltoid or psoas showed good interexaminer reliability when used by an experienced and a novice user. These techniques may be used between practitioners in multidoctor assessment/management programs.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Chiropractic*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Muscle Contraction
  • Muscle, Skeletal / physiology*
  • Observer Variation
  • Physical Examination*
  • Psoas Muscles / physiology*
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Upper Extremity*