ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION: Manual clinical tests must be highly reliable and valid to help in diagnosing, monitoring, and treating patients. Recent research highlighted the role of the fascia; thus, it is important to develop inexpensive, easy-to-use, and clinically valid procedures to assess this tissue in the field of manual therapy. The purpose of this study was to determine the level of inter- and intra-examiner concordance when performing a fascial standing flexion test in children. DESIGN: The present study is a descriptive observational study. METHODS: Two examiners tested 24 healthy children between 11 and 12 years of age performing two trials with the proposed fascial test. Inter- and intra-examiner data were analyzed using unweighted kappa coefficients and percentage agreement. RESULTS: We observed zero inter-examiner reliability in the fascial standing flexion test (mean κ = -0.071, mean percentage agreement of 43.7%), and moderate intra-examiner reliability (mean κ = 0.693, mean percentage agreement of 85.4%). CONCLUSION: The reliability and validity of the fascial standing flexion test must be improved before it can be recommended for use in a clinical setting.
