title: Validity and reliability of clinical tests for assessing hip passive stiffness.
abstract: Inadequate levels of hip passive joint stiffness have been associated with the occurrence of movement dysfunction, development of pathologies and reduction in performance. Clinical tests, designed to evaluate hip joint stiffness, may allow the identification of improper stiffness levels. The purpose of this study was to determine the concurrent validity as well as the intra- and inter-examiners reliabilities of clinical measures used to assess hip passive stiffness during internal rotation. Fifteen healthy participants were subjected to test-retest evaluations by two examiners. Two clinical measures were performed: 'position of first detectable resistance' and 'change in passive resistance torque'. The results of these tests were compared to the passive stiffness measured with an isokinetic dynamometer (gold standard measure). A significant correlation was found between the stiffness measured with the isokinetic dynamometer and the clinical measures of 'position of first detectable resistance' (r=-0.85 to -0.86, p<0.001) and 'change in passive resistance torque' (r=0.78 to 0.84, p≤0.001). The Intraclass Correlation Coefficients for intra- and inter-examiners reliabilities varied from 0.95 to 0.99. Thus, the results demonstrated that the clinical measures have adequate validity and reliability for obtaining information on hip passive stiffness during internal rotation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Therapy, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Av. Presidente Antônio Carlos, 6627 Campus Pampulha, Belo Horizonte, CEP 31270-901, MG, Brazil. viviane.carvalhais@hotmail.com
authors.forename: Viviane Otoni do Carmo
authors.initials: VO
authors.lastname: Carvalhais
authors.forename: Vanessa Lara
authors.initials: VL
authors.lastname: de Araújo
authors.forename: Thales Rezende
authors.initials: TR
authors.lastname: Souza
authors.forename: Gabriela Gomes Pavan
authors.initials: GG
authors.lastname: Gonçalves
authors.forename: Juliana de Melo
authors.initials: Jde M
authors.lastname: Ocarino
authors.forename: Sérgio Teixeira
authors.initials: ST
authors.lastname: Fonseca
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D015331:Cohort Studies; D004548:Elasticity; D005260:Female; D006621:Hip Joint / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009119:Muscle Contraction / Q000502:physiology*; D053581:Muscle Strength Dynamometer; D016059:Range of Motion, Articular / Q000502:physiology*; D012016:Reference Values; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D019415:Torque; D055815:Young Adult