Reliability of the lengthening-shortening test or Downing’s test
Item
- Title
- Reliability of the lengthening-shortening test or Downing’s test
- Author(s)
- Vaucher P Rippstein J
- Abstract
-
Background data: Sacroiliac joint tests are commonly used in manual therapy for the diagnosis of sacroiliac joint dysfunction (SIJD) despite the fact that most tests for range of motion of this joint seem unreliable.Objectiv: The aim of this study was to determine the inter and intrarater reliability of Downing's test.
Study Design: A convenience sampling method was used to find volunteer patients with sacroiliac joint pain (SIJP). Both joints were tested randomly six times with three measuring devices by one rater for intrarater reliability and five times by five raters for interrater reliability.
Results: 1’980 measures were performed on 12 sacroiliac joints. Results showed a best intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) of 0.47 (IC=95%: 0.23-0.75) for the lengthening test and of 0.367 (IC=95%: 0.09-0.70) for the shortening test. Our hypothesis that the Downing test had at least an ICC of 0.75 was rejected for intrarater reliability with a power of 95.2% for the lengthening test and of 98.0% for the shortening test. Interrater reliability was worse. The power was of respectively 99.7% and 99.8%. These results show poor reliability. Furthermore there was no correlation between lengthening and shortening effects and there was no significant differences between joints having SIJP and those who did not.
Conclusions: Results of this study do not justify the use of Downing’s Test as it is usually described to detect abnormal sacroiliac joint play. - presented at
- Swiss School of Osteopathy
- Date Accepted
- 2004
- Date Submitted
- 4.2.2004 00:00:00
- Type
- osteo_thesis
- Language
- French
- Submitted by:
- 62
- Pub-Identifier
- 13041
- Inst-Identifier
- 1102
- Keywords
- Sacroiliac Joint
- Recommended
- 0
- Item sets
- Thesis
Vaucher P Rippstein J, “Reliability of the lengthening-shortening test or Downing’s test”, Osteopathic Research Web, accessed April 28, 2024, https://www.osteopathicresearch.com/s/orw/item/1301