Inter-rater Reliability of Cervical Proprioception, Dynamic Balance and Dorsiflexion Range of Motion Using STARmat®

ABSTRACT

Purpose@#This study examined the inter-rater reliability of cervical proprioception, dynamic balance ability, and ankle dorsiflexion range of motion using STARmat®, which is a practical clinical tool that can provide practitioners and patients with quantitative and qualitative results. @*Methods@#Thirty healthy young subjects were enrolled in this study, and two well-trained physical therapists participated as a tester. Two testers measured the cervical joint position error at the starting position after neck flexion, extension, side bending, and rotation; three dynamic balance tests, including anterior excursion, anterior reaching with single leg balance, and posterior diagonal excursion; and ankle dorsiflexion range of motion using STARmat®. The intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) was used to determine the inter-rater reliability of the tests. @*Results@#The inter-rater reliability for the cervical proprioception ranged from moderate to good (0.66 to 0.83), particularly for flexion (0.82), extension (0.70), right side bending (0.73), left side bending (0.71), right rotation (0.83), and left rotation (0.66). For the dynamic balance, the inter-rater reliability ranged from good to excellent (0.87 to 0.91), particularly for anterior excursion (0.86), posterior diagonal excursion (0.87 to 0.89), and anterior reaching with a single leg balance (0.90 to 0.91). In addition, for the ankle dorsiflexion range of motion, the ICC for the inter-rater reliability ranged from 0.95 to 0.96. @*Conclusion@#STARmat® is a reliable tool for measuring cervical proprioception, dynamic balance tests, and ankle dorsiflexion range of motion in healthy young adults.