Test-retest reliability of seven common clinical tests for assessing lower extremity muscle flexibility in futsal and handball players

Objective: To determine the inter-session reliability of seven lower limb muscle flexibility measures obtained from the passive hip extension test (PHE), passive hip flexion test (PHF), passive hip abduction test (PHA), passive straight leg raise test (PSLR), modified Thomas test (MTh), the ankle dorsi-flexion with knee extended (ADFKE) and flexed (ADFKF) tests.

Design: Repeated measures design.

Setting: Controlled laboratory environment.

Participants: 60 futsal and 30 handball players.

Main outcome measures: Reliability was examined through the change in the mean (ChM), standard error of measurement expressed in absolute values (SEM) and as a percentage of the mean score (%SEM), minimal detectable change (MDC95), and intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC2,k).

Results: The findings showed negligible ChM values for all the flexibility measures analysed (<1°). Furthermore, the SEM and MDC95 for each flexibility measure ranged from 1.3° to 2.5° and from 3.8° to 6.9°, respectively, with %SEM scores lower than 10% and ICC scores higher than 0.88.

Conclusions: Clinicians can be 95% confident that an observed change between 2 measures larger than 3.7°, 6.2°, 5.5°, 6.1°, 6.9°, 4.7°, and 5.0° for the flexibility measures obtained from the PHE, PHF, PHA, PSLR, MTh, ADFKE and ADFKF, respectively, likely indicates a real change in muscle flexibility.