Intraexaminer and interexaminer reliability of the Gillet test

The purpose of this study was to determine the intraexaminer and interexaminer reliability of the Gillet test.

In a test-retest study the incidence of asymmetric or symmetric sacroiliac joint motion was investigated with the Gillet test.

Forty-one male subjects volunteered for this study (mean age, 23 +/- 2.24 years). Thirty-eight subjects were examined in the first test procedure, and at least 4 days later 37 subjects were examined again. The subjects were subdivided into symptomatic and asymptomatic groups on the basis of certain criteria.

To obtain the intraexaminer and interexaminer reliability values, Cohen's kappa, the percentage agreement, bias-adjusted kappa, and prevalence-adjusted bias-adjusted kappa were used. The mean Cohen's kappa did not exceed the value of 0.081. Only the percentage agreement of the symptomatic group did exceed the minimum level of 80%. When kappa was positive, the prevalence-adjusted bias-adjusted kappa was markedly higher than kappa; when kappa was negative, the prevalence-adjusted bias-adjusted kappa was only slightly higher than kappa. Only small differences were found between kappa and bias-adjusted kappa.

The Gillet test, as performed in this study, does not appear to be reliable.