The functional movement screening (fms)™: an inter-rater reliability study between raters of varied experience

Previous researchers have reported on the reliability of the scoring of the FMS™ movement screens. Those authors have reported good to excellent inter-rater reliability between paired raters of similar experience level (either novice or expert), but no comparisons of inter-rater reliability exist between a novice and an expert.

The purpose of this investigation was to examine the inter-rater reliability of the scoring of the FMS™ between trained novices and an expert rater using video records.

Twenty healthy college students participated. Each participant performed the series of seven functional movement screens. Four raters (three novices and one expert) independently scored the seven FMS™ tests by watching video recordings of the movements..

The mean total FMS™ score for all subjects was 14.6 ± 1.9, and was not significantly different between raters (p = 0.136). For the individual tests, half of them had perfect agreement, while the other half ranged from slight to moderate agreement (33-66%).

Total FMS™ scores were similar among the raters, and the inter-rater reliability for a majority of the individual tests had as strong agreement despite the various level of experience of the raters scoring the FMS™ tests.

Although there was mostly moderate to perfect agreement among raters, the level of experience of the rater scoring the FMS™ should be considered, as it appears that the expert rater was more critical than novice raters in the interpretation of the scoring criteria.

Level 3.