Reliability of Corrective Exercise Specialist Raters Assessing Movement System Impairment Approach Items in Transient Low Back Pain Developers During Prolonged Standing

The purpose of this study was to examine the inter- and intra-rater reliability of corrective exercise specialist raters assessing movement and postural impairments of transient Low Back Pain (LBP) developers during Prolonged Standing Protocol (PSP) which called Pain Developers (PDs).

Method and Materials:

Twenty-four subjects developing transient LBP during prolonged standing (9males, 15females) between 17-85 years of age, were examined by 2 corrective exercise specialists. In order to control the effect of repeated testing on intra-rater reliability, both raters assessed the subjects at the same time. To assess inter-rater reliability, one of the raters assessed the subjects one week later. Examination findings were recorded independently, without discussion. Inter- and intra-rater reliability were indexed by the percent of agreement and kappa coefficient.

Overall, the kappa values for intra- and inter-rater reliability of the items ranged from 0.12 - 0.86 and 62.5 - 1.00, respectively.

The results of the present study indicate these clinical test items as a reliable tool for corrective exercise specialists. They can reliably utilize these test items for identification of movement and alignment impairments that need to be modified in order to prevent the onset of LBP in in healthy-back PDs.