Handheld Dynamometer for Hamstring Strength Test Using Two Different Hand Placements/Methods: An Interrater Reliability Study.

Handheld dynamometers provide an accurate measurement of muscle strength and have been shown to have good interrater reliability. The proximal stabilization and fulcrum are two methods of manual muscle testing; however, there is uncertainty about which method may be better for obtaining muscle strength measures. The purposes were to determine if there was a difference in hamstring strength and to determine the interrater reliability of DPT students using a handheld dynamometer when comparing the proximal stabilization and the fulcrum methods. A descriptive-comparative research study that examined two methods of manual muscle testing with the use of a Microfet 2 MMT-Wireless digital handheld dynamometer. In prone, each participant was instructed to bend their knee to 90° of knee flexion, where the handheld dynamometer was placed on the lower leg for 5 s. Each technique was performed three times, and an average of the series was calculated. Twenty-nine participants volunteered for this study. The mean scores for Raters 1 and 2 between hamstring testing using the proximal stabilization and fulcrum methods were, respectively, (28) = -2.041, = 0.051, and (28) = -1.990, = 0.056. The interrater reliability showed good reliability between Rater 1 and Rater 2 for hamstring testing for the proximal stabilization method and fulcrum methods, respectively, ICC = 0.742 (95% CI: 0.452, 0.879), ≤ 0.001, and ICC = 0.752 (95% CI: 0.472, 0.884), ≤ 0.001. There are no statistically significant differences between the uses of these two methods in healthy adults; however, there is good interrater reliability of DPT students.