Reliability of measurements of hip abduction strength obtained with a hand-held dynamometer

AbstractThis study aimed to evaluate intrarater and interrater reliability when measuring hip abductor strength in the supine position using a hand-held dynamometer (HHD) (Study 1), and to elucidate the relationships between measured values and examiners’ physical characteristics (Study 2). Three healthy examiners (1 female, 24 y.o. and 2 males 23 and 27 y.o) and 12 subjects (6 females, 24.5 ± 2.8 years and 6 males, 27.7 ± 3.5 years) participated in Study 1, and 20 healthy examiners (7 females, 22.3 ± 1.3 years and 13 males, 29.4 ± 8.2 years) and 2 subjects (1 female, 24 y.o. and 1 male 27 y.o) participated in Study 2. All healthy examiners were hospital employees. Hip abductor strength was measured by HHD with hand fixation and with belt fixation, and examiner age, sex, height, weight, BMI, and dominant hand grip strength were evaluated. The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) (1,1), a measure of intrarater reliability, was 0.89–0.95 with hand fixation and 0.96–0.97 with belt fixation. ICC (2,1), a ...