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Updated: Jan 23, 2026

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Published on: April 12, 2011
Development and reliability of a hand-held dynamometer device to measure the ankle dorsiflexor muscle strength
Masanobu Kimura1, Yuto Ogata1, Toru Akebi2
1University Hospital of Occupational and Environmental Health, Kitakyushu, Japan.
Background:
Ankle dorsiflexor muscle strength is a crucial component of gait.
Objective:
We describe the development of a simple, hand-held dynamometer to measure the ankle dorsiflexor muscle strength in the sitting position. In addition, we examine its intra- and inter-rater reliability.
Methods:
Measurements of the peak ankle dorsiflexor muscle strength were obtained by two examiners for 30 ankles of 15 healthy adults at two time points, with a one-day interval between measurements, to determine the inter- and intra-rater reliability. The intraclass correlation coefficients were calculated, and an intraclass correlation coefficient > 0.90 was considered as excellent reliability. A Bland-Altman analysis was used to assess systemic bias. The minimal detectable change in muscle strength was calculated with a confidence level of 95% (MDC95).
Results:
The reliability of the device was excellent for both intra- (intraclass correlation coefficients [1,3] = 0.94) and inter-rater (intraclass correlation coefficients [2,3] = 0.96) comparisons. No fixed or proportional bias was observed between the two examiners. The MDC95 was 0.77 N/kg.
Conclusions:
Our results indicate the excellent reliability and responsiveness of our device. By obtaining the measurements of dorsiflexor strength while sitting, compensatory motions are suppressed, yielding a more consistent measurement that can be reliably used to detect subtle changes in the ankle dorsiflexor muscle strength.
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