The reliability and validity of cervical movement sense measurement in patients with chronic non-specific neck pain
Objective:To observe the validity of the transversal 8(T8)graphs and zigzag(ZZ)graphs tests in the measure-ment of cervical movement sense(CMS),and to study their effectiveness in evaluating patients with chronic non-specific neck pain.Method:A total of 71 subjects were recruited,including 35 with chronic non-specific neck pain and 36 healthy subjects.Two groups of researchers separately conducted tests(T8 and ZZ)to the subjects twice,re-corded the test process and scored the test by slow playback.The intra-and inter-rater reliability was quanti-fied in terms of inter-class correlation coefficients(ICCs)and the difference in index between the two groups was also determined for validity.Result:The intra-and inter-rater ICC for ZZ graph and T8 graph tests were 0.813/0.832 and 0.892/0.908,the corresponding standard error of measurement(SEM)values were 1.15/1.10,1.24/1.37,while the minimal detect-able change(MDC)values were 3.18/2.73,3.44/3.05.There was a significant difference in the results of the ZZ graphs and the T8 graphs tests between patients with chronic non-specific neck pain and healthy individu-als(P<0.05).The ideal cut-off values using to distinguish normal individuals from patients with chronic non-specific neck pain are 10.5 for ZZ graphs test and 16.3 for T8 graphs test.Conclusion:The T8 graphs and ZZ graphs tests showed good intra-and inter-raters reliability in assessing cervi-cal movement sense,which can help distinguish patients with chronic non-specific neck pain and the healthy in-dividuals.They can be considered as a cervical movement sense assessment method in the patients with chron-ic non-specific neck pain.
cervicalproprioceptionreliabilityvalidityjoint movement sense