Search

Importance: Occupational therapy practitioners need modern tools for the assessment of maximal grip strength in clinical and remote settings. Objective: To establish the (1) interrater reliability and (2) precision of the GripAble among three raters with different expertise in occupational therapy when testing healthy participants, and to (3) evaluate the relative reliabilities of different approaches to estimating grip strength (i.e. one trial, mean of two trials, and the mean of three trials). Design: Measurement study. Setting: Minnesota Translational Musculoskeletal and Occupational Performance Research Lab, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. Participants: Thirty volunteers, age ≥18 yr, without any hand problems. Outcomes and Measures: Using GripAble, three occupational therapy raters with varied experience measured the maximal grip strength of the dominant and nondominant hands of all participants. Using the mean of three trials when testing grip strength with GripAble adds precision. Results: GripAble has excellent interrater reliability (i.e. intraclass correlation coefficient >.75) and acceptable precision (minimal detectable change < 15%) among healthy adults. Conclusions and Relevance: GripAble allows occupational therapy practitioners with different experiences to assess grip strength in healthy hands quickly, precisely, and with excellent reliability. Additional research is needed on its psychometrics in clinical populations and capacities in remote monitoring and exergaming. Plain-Language Summary: The results of this study show that grip strength, an important biomarker and commonly assessed construct in occupational therapy, can be evaluated reliably, precisely, and rapidly with GripAble. The use of GripAble by occupational therapy practitioners in clinical settings may help to build an infrastructure for remote measurements and exergaming interventions in the future. GripAble, a novel assessment and treatment device, allows occupational therapy practitioners with different experiences to assess grip strength in healthy hands quickly, precisely, and with excellent reliability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to determine the test–retest reliability and precision of Rotterdam Intrinsic Hand Myometer (RIHM) in healthy adults. Twenty-nine participants originally recruited via convenience sampling at a Midwestern state fair returned approximately 8 days later for retest. An average of three trials for each of the five intrinsic hand strength measurements were collected using the same technique that was used during initial testing. Test–retest reliability was assessed using the intraclass correlation coefficient or ICC (2,3) and precision was evaluated using the standard error of measurement (SEM), and the minimal detectable change (MDC 90)/MDC%. Across all measures of intrinsic strength, the RIHM and its standardized procedures had excellent test–retest reliability. Index finger metacarpophalangeal flexion demonstrated the lowest reliability, and right small finger abduction, left thumb carpometacarpal abduction, and index finger metacarpophalangeal abduction tests had the highest reliability. Precision, as evidenced by SEM and MDC values, was excellent for tests of left index and bilateral small finger abduction strength and acceptable for all other measurements. Test–retest reliability and precision of RIHM across all measurements was excellent. These findings indicate that RIHM is a reliable and precise tool in measuring intrinsic strength of hands of healthy adults, although further research is needed in clinical populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]