Reliability of a shoulder arm return to sport test battery.

OBJECTIVES

To establish the reliability and responsiveness of a clinical test battery developed to determine readiness to return to sport after an upper extremity injury. A second objective was to examine the limb symmetry in single limb tests.

DESIGN

Methodological study.

PARTICIPANTS

Forty healthy participants (20 male) were tested weekly on three occasions.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

Learning effect, inter-rater and intra-rater reliability was calculated for each test in the Shoulder Arm Return to Sports (SARTS) battery with repeated measures ANOVA and intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). Measurement error and responsiveness were determined using Standard Error of Measure (SEM) and Minimal Detectable Change (MDC).

RESULTS

Drop Catches and Ball Taps showed a learning effect between Days 2-3. Intra-rater reliability for the remaining six tests between Days 2-3 ranged between 0.78 (95%CI 0.63-0.88) and 0.96 (95%CI 0.92-0.98) while inter-rater reliability on Day 2 ranged between ICC = 0.96 (95%CI 0.94-0.98) and ICC = 0.99 (95%CI 0.98-0.98). Two tests (BABER (91%) and Drop Catches (93%)) were significantly decreased on the non-dominant side (p = 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS

Six of the eight tests in the SARTS test battery demonstrate good psychometric properties to evaluate both open and closed chain upper extremity activities indicating their readiness for clinical use.