Measuring cervical muscle tenderness: a study of reliability.
OBJECTIVE
To study the inter- and intraexaminer reliability of assessing palpatory cervical muscle tenderness using a Total Tenderness Score System.


METHODS
Blinded, repeated measures of cervical muscle Total Tenderness Score.


METHODS
Primary contact ambulatory outpatient facility in a publicly (National Health Service) funded chiropractic research institution.


METHODS
Fourteen asymptomatic volunteers, seven male and seven female, aged 23-45 yr.


METHODS
Palpatory assessment of cervical muscle tenderness by two blinded examiners, three times in all per subject.


METHODS
Total Tenderness Score (TTS), measured on a rank/ordinal scale.


RESULTS
The inter- and intraexaminer reliability of TTS was evaluated using a Spearman rank correlation coefficient (r = .88 and r = .85, respectively), and using a Wilcoxon paired rank sum test (p = .85 and p = .07, respectively) and by visual inspection of a scatter-plot.


CONCLUSIONS
The Total Tenderness Score system was deemed to possess acceptable reliability for use in the cervical muscles.
Nilsson
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Nordic Institute of Chiropractic, Odense, Denmark.
D000328:Adult; D002684:Chiropractic; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal; D009333:Neck; D010147:Pain Measurement; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D016896:Treatment Outcome