Document Type

Thesis - NSU Access Only

Title

Interrater Reliability of the Tape Measurement Method in the Assessment of Leg Length Discrepancy

Authors

Dyaeli Kunkel, Nova Southeastern University

Degree Name

Master of Physical Therapy (MPT)

Copyright Statement

All rights reserved. This publication is intended for use solely by faculty, students, and staff of Nova Southeastern University. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, now known or later developed, including but not limited to photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author or the publisher.

Department

College of Health Care Sciences - Physical Therapy Department

Publication Date / Copyright Date

1998

Publisher

Nova Southeastern University

NSUWorks Citation

Dyaeli Kunkel. 1998. Interrater Reliability of the Tape Measurement Method in the Assessment of Leg Length Discrepancy. Master's thesis. Nova Southeastern University. Retrieved from NSUWorks, College of Health Care Sciences - Physical Therapy Department. (127)
https://nsuworks.nova.edu/hpd_pt_stuetd/127.

Abstract

Purpose: Previous trials have failed to clearly define interrater reliability for the tape measurement method (TMM) when used by therapists in general. The present trial evaluates whether experience is a significant factor when using the TMM to assess a leg length discrepancy (LLD). It also evaluates the reliability of 2 bony landmarks used as reference points during measurement, the anterior superior iliac spine (ASIS) to medial malleoulus (MM) and ASIS to the lateral malleoulus (LM).

Subjects: 5 healthy physical therapy students conveniently selected from 100 with a range of 25-37 years of age.

Method: 5 experts, with ≥ 10 years experience and 5 novices with < 1 year experience measured the legs of 5 subjects with the TMM, in supine using the ASIS-MM and ASIS-LM landmarks.

Results: Using Model (2,1) of the Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC), for the ASIS-LM, very poor reliability was found with significant variability for novices, ICC=0.172, p=0.03 and poor reliability for experts, ICC=0.348, p>.05. For ASIS-MM, poor reliability was found for novices, ICC=0.209 and fair reliability for experts ICC=0.582 with p>.05 for both groups.

Conclusions: Experience does make a difference. Thus, the TMM is operator dependent and the ASIS-MM yields higher reliability than ASIS-LM.

Disciplines

Physical Therapy