Intra-rater reliability of grip strength measurement by using a manual sphygmomanometer in patients with rheumatoid arthritis
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Abstract
Background: Grip strength measurement is an essential clinical assessment for specifying prognosis and treatment plans of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). At present, a manual sphygmomanometer is applied as an instrument for measuring grip strength. However, reports about psychometric properties of this instrument in patients with RA are limited.
Objective: To evaluate intra-rater reliability of grip strength measurement by using a manual sphygmomanometer in patients with RA.
Methods: Participants were 89 patients with RA (60 females and 29 males). Each of them was asked to use his/her dominant hand to continuously squeeze an air-filled sphygmomanometer cuff, which was rolled and placed inside a fabric bag, as hard as possible for 5 seconds. The maximum and stable pressure peak reading during the 5-second period was recorded. Two trials were conducted with a 30-second rest between trials. Then, the same procedure was applied to the non-dominant hand. Intra-rater reliability of the grip strength measurement of each hand was evaluated by the ICC3,1 with a statistical significance at p<0.05.
Results: The ICC3,1 of the grip strength measurement were 0.95 (95% CI = 0.93 to 0.97, p<0.001) and 0.99 (95% CI = 0.98 to 0.99, p<0.001) for dominant and non-dominant hands, respectively.
Conclusion: Grip strength measurement by using a manual sphygmomanometer in patients with RA in moderate severity level showed very high intra-rater reliability. Therefore, this instrument is possibly an alternative measurement of grip strength in patients with RA. Evaluations for other psychometric properties of the instrument are suggested to promote its extensive use.
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References
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