title: Reliability of measuring hip abductor strength following total knee arthroplasty using a hand-held dynamometer.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the test-retest reliability of measuring hip abductor strength in patients with total knee arthroplasty (TKA) using a hand-held dynamometer (HHD) with two different types of resistance: belt and manual resistance.
  
  
  METHODS
  Test-retest reliability of 30 subjects (17 female, 13 male, 71.9 ± 7.4 years old), 9.2 ± 2.7 days post TKA was measured using belt and therapist resistance. Retest reliability was calculated with intra-class coefficients (ICC3,1) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for both the group average and the individual scores. A paired t-test assessed whether a difference existed between the belt and therapist methods of resistance.
  
  
  RESULTS
  ICCs were 0.82 and 0.80 for the belt and therapist resisted methods, respectively. Hip abductor strength increases of 8 N (14%) for belt resisted and 14 N (17%) for therapist resisted measurements of the group average exceeded the 95% CI and may represent real change. For individuals, hip abductor strength increases of 33 N (72%) (belt resisted) and 57 N (79%) (therapist resisted) could be interpreted as real change.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Hip abductor strength can be reliably measured using HHD in the clinical setting with the described protocol. Belt resistance demonstrated slightly higher test-retest reliability.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Reliable measurement of hip abductor muscle strength in patients with TKA is important to ensure deficiencies are addressed in rehabilitation programs and function is maximized. Hip abductor strength can be reliably measured with a hand-held dynamometer in the clinical setting using manual or belt resistance.
authors.affiliation: a School of Allied Health, La Trobe University , Melbourne , Australia , and.|b Donvale Rehabilitation Hospital, Ramsay Health Care , Melbourne , Australia.
authors.forename: Margaret B
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Schache
authors.affiliation: a School of Allied Health, La Trobe University , Melbourne , Australia , and.
authors.forename: Jodie A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: McClelland
authors.affiliation: a School of Allied Health, La Trobe University , Melbourne , Australia , and.
authors.forename: Kate E
authors.initials: KE
authors.lastname: Webster
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D019645:Arthroplasty, Replacement, Knee / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D005260:Female; D006615:Hip / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D053580:Muscle Strength; D053581:Muscle Strength Dynamometer / Q000592:standards*; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000503:physiopathology; D020370:Osteoarthritis, Knee / Q000534:rehabilitation* / Q000601:surgery; D015203:Reproducibility of Results
keywords: Hip abductor; knee replacement; muscle strength