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Reliability of New Methods to Quantify Forearm Torque and Lifting Strength

Objective/Hypothesis: Forceful forearm rotation and lifting strength are important aspects of upper extremity function. Yet they are rarely assessed in relation to wrist and forearm pathologies, or their treatments. Absence of reliable methods that are easy to use might be one reason for this discrepancy. We designed 2 new procedures to quantify forearm torque and lifting strength in a clinical setting. The objective of this study was to determine the intra- and interrater reliability of these methods. Materials and Methods: We used 2 commercially available dynamometers, the digital Baseline wrist dynamometer and the Kern hanging scale, to develop 2 procedures to measure forearm torque and lifting strength. Two assessors used the new techniques to test 15 healthy volunteers, 10 females and 5 males. Each assessor measured each participant on 3 occasions. Torque was tested for supination and pronation. Lifting strength was tested in 3 forearm positions, supinated, pronated, and neutral position. Analysis of reliability was performed using intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC), with 95% confidence intervals. As raters were fixed ICC model 3 was used with single measurements to determine consistency in agreement. Results: Torque: The intrarater reliability coefficients for test-retest observed for the Baseline dynamometer were for both raters between 0.96 and 0.97 for supination and 0.93 and 0.97 for pronation. There were no differences between the raters (P < .001). Lifting strength: The intrarater ICCs for the different forearm positions were nearly the same for both investigators (0.95-0.99) and similar values were noted for the interrater comparisons (0.95-0.98). Conclusions: Both the Baseline and Kern dynamometers demonstrated excellent intra- and interrater repeatability. The quality of measurements performed with our new methods is sufficient for future studies of forearm torque and lifting strength. Simple, yet reliable methods to quantify torque and lifting strength in a clinical setting have the potential to improve evaluations of wrist and forearm disorders as well as their treatments.