Reliability of military-relevant tests designed to assess soldier readiness for occupational and combat-related...

The purpose of this study was to determine the reliability of military-relevant tests designed to assess soldier readiness. Forty-seven soldiers (46 men, 1 woman; 22 +/- 3 years; 80.4 +/- 11.7 kg) performed each of seven soldier readiness tests on four different occasions over the course of 8 weeks. The soldier readiness tests were: (1) 3.2-km load carriage (LC) time-trial, (2) running long jump (RLJ), (3) one-repetition maximum box lift (1RMBL), (4) 10-minute repetitive box lift and carry (RBLC), (5) simulated victim rescue (VR), (6) mock grenade throw (GT) for accuracy, and (7) simulated combat rushes (CR). Repeated measures analysis of variance revealed significant learning effects for 1RMBL, RBLC, and GT; these tests required two (1RMBL and RBLC) or three (GT) trials to obtain statistically stable values. The intraclass correlation coefficient was 0.78 to 0.89 for all tests. LC, 1RMBL, RBLC, CR, and RLJ all demonstrated standard error of measurement values that were 3% to 5%, whereas VR and GT were 9% and 36%, respectively. In conclusion, the 1RMBL, RBLC, and GT tests required familiarization before a stable value was obtained. The LC, 1RMBL, RBLC, CR, and RLJ tests (and, to a lesser degree, the VR test) demonstrated reasonably acceptable levels of reliability and measurement error, whereas the GT test did not.