2018 Volume 33 Issue 6 Pages 985-990
[Purpose] To develop a simple method to measure the lower-limb muscle strength, verify its intra-and inter-rater reliability, and analyze the correlation between values representing the hip abductor strength, obtained using this and conventional methods. [Participants and Methods] The hip abductor strengths of 13 healthy participants when sitting on the edge of the bed and when adopting a supine position were measured by 2 raters using a hand-held dynamometer, and correlation coefficients were calculated. The participants’ right hip flexor/abductor, knee extensor, and ankle dorsiflexor strengths when sitting on the edge of the bed were also measured, and intra- and inter-rater reliability coefficients were calculated. [Results] There was a correlation between the hip abductor strengths when sitting on the edge of the bed and when adopting a supine position. The values representing intra- and inter-rater reliability for each measurement item were sufficiently high. [Conclusion] Allowing different raters to similarly obtain reliable measurement values, the developed method to measure the lower-limb muscle strength may be clinically useful.
