New clinical measures of hand and wrist proprioception: a pilot study for evaluating discriminative validity and test-retest reliability in individuals with wrist disability
Year: 2025
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Objective: To evaluate psychometric properties of newly developed hand and wrist proprioception tests. Design: Cross-sectional and test-retest comparisons. Subjects/patients: Twenty-six individuals (mean age 40 years) with wrist disability (> 3 months) due to traumatic injury or general instability. Methods: Pointing acuity (with eyes open and closed), active joint position sense (in extension, flexion, radial- and ulnar deviation) and grip force reproduction were measured by 1 rater on 2 occasions, 1 week apart. The mean absolute error was calculated for each test. Discriminative validity (affected vs non-affected hand/wrist) was evaluated by paired t-test and test-retest reliability with Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC). Results: The pointing acuity test with eyes closed gave higher errors for the affected hand/wrist (p = 0.08) and good ICCs (0.80–0.85), while the test with eyes open had poor discriminative ability (p = 0.32) and test-retest reliability (ICC 0.13–0.16). The active joint position sense test showed higher error in flexion for the affected wrist (p = 0.03), and the ICC was moderate (0.51). The remaining joint directions and the grip force reproduction test had poor discriminative ability (p = 0.21–0.94) and poor to moderate ICCs (0.00–0.65). Conclusion: The pointing acuity test with eyes closed and the active joint position test in flexion show-ed promising results but need further evaluation in larger samples.
Authors: Maria Sontag, Ulrik Röijezon, Christina Brogårdh, Elisabeth Ekstrand
Language: English
Subfield: Surgery
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $916
OpenAlex ID: W4415650324