test-retest reliability of the purdue pegboard test in drug on-phase for patients with parkinson s disease

introduction: parkinson s disease (pd) is a common progressive neurodegenerative disorder, which its onset is later in adults and it s incidence increases in people aged between 55 and 60 years. dexterity, because of it s role at upper extremity function and person independency in function, is assessed in rehabilitation. purdue- pegboard test often is used in rehabilitation clinical settings. the purpose of this study was to determine the test-retest reliability and practice effects of the purdue pegboard test in persons with pd. materials and methods: 24 pd patients aging 50-89 of both sexes were non-randomly selected from rehabilitation clinics and hospitals of tehran. a demographic questionnaire was used for documenting patient s general data and the purdue pegboard test and a timer were used for determining of reliability. each subtest was administered three times in a row. the time distance between test and retest was one week. results: the relative reliability in repeated measures was above 90% in different items of purdue pegboard test in single and mean of testes in off phase, thus indicates an excellent reliability. the absolute reliability (sem) was lower than 10% of maximum obtained scores at each subtest in one and three trial of test that indicates acceptable errors of measurement. conclusion: the results of the present study indicate that purdue pegboard test is enough reliable in evaluating a manual dexterity of parkinson patients in drug on- phase.