Original ArticleInterrater Reliability of a Passive Physiological Intervertebral Motion Test in the Mid-Thoracic Spine
Section snippets
Subjects
Forty-three volunteer subjects were recruited from a population of college students using flyers and recruitment in class at the Department of Rehabilitation Sciences of Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center. Each subject provided written informed consent to participate and completed a demographic questionnaire. None of the subjects reported being pregnant and all denied previous or current vertebral motion-limiting conditions, such as back surgery, spinal fusion, scoliosis with a
Results
Forty-one subjects (19 male, 22 female), aged 19 to 40 years (mean, 22 years), participated in the study. The percent agreement for the 3-dimensional PPIM test ranged from 63.4% to 82.5%. The pairwise κ scores ranged from 0.27 to 0.65 and the overall κ score was 0.41. As a result, the 3-dimensional thoracic PPIM test showed fair to substantial interrater reliability as defined by Landis and Koch.29 Percent agreement and pairwise κ scores are summarized in Table 1. The Spearman rank correlation
Discussion
The present study results indicated fair to substantial interrater reliability of segmental PPIM testing of the thoracic spine. This is surprising as previous research of interrater reliability of thoracic and thoracolumbar segmental palpation reported poor (κ = −0.03)25 to fair (κ = 0.35)26 reliability values. Such differences in reliability outcome can be explained by the fact that the testing performed was different in previous studies vs the present study, as both Keating et al25 and Haas
Conclusion
The 3-dimensional thoracic PPIM test is a tool used by trained clinicians to manually investigate mid-thoracic segmental movement patterns. The outcome of this study indicates that this technique demonstrates fair to substantial interrater reliability, when performed on asymptomatic subjects. Further research is needed to determine the intrarater reliability and validity of the 3-dimensional PPIM motion test. In addition, reliability and validity should be investigated using clinicians with
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This project was not supported by grant funding.
Work is attributed to Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, and the International Academy of Orthopedic Medicine.