Intra- and inter-observer concordance of a fascial standing flexion test in children

Manual clinical tests must be highly reliable and valid to help in diagnosing, monitoring, and treating patients. Recent research highlighted the role of the fascia; thus, it is important to develop inexpensive, easy-to-use, and clinically valid procedures to assess this tissue in the field of manual therapy. The purpose of this study was to determine the level of inter- and intra-examiner concordance when performing a fascial standing flexion test in children.

The present study is a descriptive observational study.

Two examiners tested 24 healthy children between 11 and 12 years of age performing two trials with the proposed fascial test. Inter- and intra-examiner data were analyzed using unweighted kappa coefficients and percentage agreement.

We observed zero inter-examiner reliability in the fascial standing flexion test (mean κ = -0.071, mean percentage agreement of 43.7%), and moderate intra-examiner reliability (mean κ = 0.693, mean percentage agreement of 85.4%).

The reliability and validity of the fascial standing flexion test must be improved before it can be recommended for use in a clinical setting.