Reliability of vertical jump performance evaluated with contact mat in elderly women

The aim of this study was to evaluate the reliability of the vertical jump (VJ) using a contact mat in elderly women. Thirty-one physically active women aged 69·5 ± 5·6 years participated in this study. Jump performance was evaluated with a contact mat. The first testing session (s1) consisted of four countermovement jumps interspersed with 40 s rest intervals. After a period of 5-7 days, volunteers performed the second session (s2) utilizing the same procedures. The intersession statistical analysis was calculated considering the two highest jumps, one obtained in each section. The intra-session analysis utilized all eight jumps, all four from each section, and the differences between means were calculated by repeated measures ANOVA. Reliability was tested using the intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) and agreement by the Bland-Altman method. The intra- and inter-subject variation percentage was calculated by the coefficient of variation (CV).

The intersession results displayed a high ICC (0·91; P<0·001) and a good agreement verified by the Bland-Altman method. There was a significant difference in the intra-session analysis only in s2 between the jumps 2 and 4. Both in s1 and s2, the ICC was high (0·96; P<0·001; 0·95; P<0·001), and the within session reliability CV was low (10·14% and 9·07%).

In physically active elderly women, VJ evaluation using a contact mat is a reliable method and could be used to estimate jump height. Additionally, the results of this study could serve as reference values in similar samples evaluated with the same procedures.