BACKGROUND Pectoralis minor adaptive shortening may change scapula resting position and scapular kinematics during arm elevation. A reliable and clinically feasible method for measuring pectoralis minor length will be useful for clinical decision making when evaluating and treating individuals with shoulder pain and dysfunction. OBJECTIVES To evaluate intrarater, interrater, and between-day r...

The purpose of this study was to examine the interrater and test-retest reliability of a one-leg balance test and a tiltboard balance test. Twenty-four normally developing children aged 4 through 9 years participated in the study. Time and quality of balance on one leg and degrees of tilt on a tiltboard prior to postural adjustment were measured. Both tests were completed with eyes open and wit...

The Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) is a widely used screening test for cognitive impairment in older adults. Because the guidelines for its application are brief, the administration and scoring of the test can vary between different individuals. This can diminish its reliability. Furthermore, some of the items must be changed to accommodate different settings, such as the clinic, home, or...

OBJECTIVE This study was used to (1) develop an occupational therapy screening questionnaire (the Handwriting Proficiency Screening Questionnaire [HPSQ]) to identify handwriting difficulties among school-aged children and (2) examine its reliability and validity. METHOD The questionnaire's content validity was established. Internal consistency, interrater and test-retest reliability, and conc...

AIM The aim of this study was to examine the reliability and validity of the Dyskinesia Impairment Scale (DIS). The DIS consists of two subscales: dystonia and choreoathetosis. It measures both phenomena in dyskinetic cerebral palsy (CP). METHOD Twenty-five participants with dyskinetic CP (17 males; eight females; age range 5–22y; mean age 13y 6mo; SD 5y 4mo), recruited from special schools f...

The function in sitting test (FIST) is a newly developed, performance-based measure examining deficits in seated postural control. The FIST has been shown to be internally consistent and valid in persons with neurological dysfunction but intra- and interrater reliability and test-retest reliability have not been previously described. Seven patients with chronic neurologic dysfunction were teste...

The purpose of this pilot study was to explore the impact of faculty calibration training on intra- and interrater reliability regarding calculus detection. After IRB approval, twelve dental hygiene faculty members were recruited from a pool of twenty-two for voluntary participation and randomized into two groups. All subjects provided two pre- and two posttest scorings of calculus deposits on ...