Reliability and validity of ankle proprioceptive measures
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Published on: July 7, 2016
Nandini Deshpande1, Denise M Connelly, Elsie G Culham
1Department of Kinesiology, University of Waterloo, Canada.
Objective:
To determine the reliability and validity of ankle proprioceptive measures.
Design:
Reliability was assessed between test occasions. Construct validity was addressed by the ability of measures to differentiate among groups.
Setting:
Laboratory of an educational institution.
Participants:
Eight healthy adults were recruited into each of 3 groups: (1) young (20-39y), (2) middle-aged (40-59y), and (3) older adults (>or=60y). Four subjects from each group (n=12) participated in retesting.
Interventions:
Not applicable.
Main Outcome Measures:
Threshold for perception of passive movement, error in active reproduction of position, error in reproduction of velocity, and error in reproduction of torque.
Results:
Intersession reliability was excellent (intraclass correlation coefficient [ICC] range, .79 - .95) for threshold for perception of movement, error in active reproduction, error in velocity reproduction, and error in dorsiflexion torque reproduction; intersession reliability was good for error in reproduction of plantarflexion torque (ICC=.72). Threshold for perception of movement differed between groups 1 and 3 and between groups 2 and 3 (P<.05). Error in reproduction of position was greater in group 2 than in group 1 (P<.05).
Conclusion:
Differences in proprioception between the older and the 2 younger groups were best detected by using threshold for perception of passive movement.
