Research article - (2015)14, 427 - 440
Intra and Inter-Rater Reliability of Screening for Movement Impairments: Movement Control Tests from The Foundation Matrix
Carolina R. Mischiati1,, Mark Comerford2,3, Emma Gosford1, Jacqueline Swart4, Sean Ewings5, Nadine Botha2,6, Maria Stokes2,6, Sarah L. Mottram2,3,6
1Department of Sport and Exercise Sciences, University of Chichester, UK
2Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Southampton, UK
3Movement Performance Solutions, Chichester, UK
4Manage Movement Centre, Pretoria, South Afric
5Southampton Statistical Sciences Research Institute, University of Southampton, UK
6Arthritis Research UK Centre for Sport, Exercise and Osteoarthritis, UK

Carolina R. Mischiati
✉ Department of Sport and Exercise Sciences, University of Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 6PE, UK
Email: c.mischiati@chi.ac.uk
Received: 26-09-2014 -- Accepted: 24-03-2015
Published (online): 01-06-2015

ABSTRACT

Pre-season screening is well established within the sporting arena, and aims to enhance performance and reduce injury risk. With the increasing need to identify potential injury with greater accuracy, a new risk assessment process has been produced; The Performance Matrix (battery of movement control tests). As with any new method of objective testing, it is fundamental to establish whether the same results can be reproduced between examiners and by the same examiner on consecutive occasions. This study aimed to determine the intra-rater test re-test and inter-rater reliability of tests from a component of The Performance Matrix, The Foundation Matrix. Twenty participants were screened by two experienced musculoskeletal therapists using nine tests to assess the ability to control movement during specific tasks. Movement evaluation criteria for each test were rated as pass or fail. The therapists observed participants real-time and tests were recorded on video to enable repeated ratings four months later to examine intra-rater reliability (videos rated two weeks apart). Overall test percentage agreement was 87% for inter-rater reliability; 98% Rater 1, 94% Rater 2 for test re-test reliability; and 75% for real-time versus video. Intraclass-correlation coefficients (ICCs) were excellent between raters (0.81) and within raters (Rater 1, 0.96; Rater 2, 0.88) but poor for real-time versus video (0.23). Reliability for individual components of each test was more variable: inter-rater, 68-100%; intra-rater, 88-100% Rater 1, 75-100% Rater 2; and real-time versus video 31-100%. Cohen’s Kappa values for inter-rater reliability were 0.0-1.0; intra-rater 0.6-1.0 for Rater 1; -0.1-1.0 for Rater 2; and -0.1-1 for real-time versus video. It is concluded that both inter and intra-rater reliability of tests in The Foundation Matrix are acceptable when rated by experienced therapists. Recommendations are made for modifying some of the criteria to improve reliability where excellence was not reached.

Key words: Movement control, movement impairments, screening, reliability

Key Points
  • The movement control tests of The Foundation Matrix had acceptable reliability between raters and within raters on different days
  • Agreement between observations made on tests performed real-time and on video recordings was low, indicating poor validity of use of video recordings
  • Some movement evaluation criteria related to specific tests that did not achieve excellent agreement could be modified to improve reliability








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