Straight leg raising test - a comparison of two instruments

Abstract

Introduction. Good measuring instruments are expected to be reliable, therefore this study determined the reliability of two instruments for measuring straight leg raising (SLR), which were the tape measure and universal goniometer.
Material and Method. Two hundred (100 males and 100 females) undergraduate students participated in study. Their age range was between 19 and 30 years with a mean of 24.02±2.33 years. The participants were asked to wear unrestrictive clothing and the procedure explained to them. The skin of the participants were marked with a marker (the greater trochanter and the lateral condyle of the femur). In supine lying, the participants raised their right lower limb up and down until the onset of pelvic tilt was detected by the researcher. At the onset of pelvic tilt, the lower limb of the participants were held by the assistant and the measurement taken by the researcher, one after the other with the two instruments. This process was repeated two times and average value was recorded for each of the measurement procedure. The procedure was repeated on the subsequent measurement. Pearson product moment correlation coefficient (r) was used to determine the relationship between the first and subsequent measurement.
Results. The test retest correlation coefficient (r=0.65; 0.66; 0.63) was obtained for goniometric measurements for all the participants, males and females respectively, whereas a corresponding lower test retest correlation coefficient (r=0.57; 0.60; 0.51) was obtained for tape measurements for all, males and females participants respectively.
Conclusion. The two instruments were found to be reliable, with the goniometer having a higher value. Goniometer was more reliable than the tape measure and hence preferred for range of motion measurement.

Key words:

reliability, straight leg raise, goniometric measurement, tape measurement

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