Reliability of a shoulder arm return to sport test battery

Abstract

Objectives: To establish the reliability and responsiveness of a clinical test battery developed to determine readiness to return to sport after an upper extremity injury. A second objective was to examine the limb symmetry in single limb tests.

Design: Methodological study.

Participants: Forty healthy participants (20 male) were tested weekly on three occasions.

Main outcome measures: Learning effect, inter-rater and intra-rater reliability was calculated for each test in the Shoulder Arm Return to Sports (SARTS) battery with repeated measures ANOVA and intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). Measurement error and responsiveness were determined using Standard Error of Measure (SEM) and Minimal Detectable Change (MDC).

Results: Drop Catches and Ball Taps showed a learning effect between Days 2-3. Intra-rater reliability for the remaining six tests between Days 2-3 ranged between 0.78 (95%CI 0.63-0.88) and 0.96 (95%CI 0.92-0.98) while inter-rater reliability on Day 2 ranged between ICC = 0.96 (95%CI 0.94-0.98) and ICC = 0.99 (95%CI 0.98-0.98). Two tests (BABER (91%) and Drop Catches (93%)) were significantly decreased on the non-dominant side (p = 0.05).

Conclusions: Six of the eight tests in the SARTS test battery demonstrate good psychometric properties to evaluate both open and closed chain upper extremity activities indicating their readiness for clinical use.

Keywords: Athlete; Athletic training; Physical therapy; Recovery of function; Return to play; Sporting activity resumption.