Modified measurement of finger-floor distance : Self-assessment bending scale

概要

論文の詳細を見る
Finger-floor distance (FFD), which represents trunk flexibility, is a reliable assessment of lumbar impairment. Although this measurement is easy to test, it is difficult to adopt in a large, epidemiological study because it requires examiners. As an alternative, we developed a simple self-assessment bending scale (SABS). The purpose of the present study was to investigate the validity and reliability of the SABS. The SABS has 7-point grading scheme: (1) Fingertips can not reach beyond the knees; (2) Fingertips can reach beyond the knees but the wrists can not; (3) Wrists can reach beyond the knees, but fingertips can not reach the ankles; (4) Fingertips can reach the ankles, but not the floor; (5) Fingertips can touch the floor; (6) All of the fingers can reach the floor; and (7) Palms can reach the floor. We measured the FFD and SABS in 55 healthy volunteers. SABS assessments were made and documented independently by the subject and examiner. The SABS highly correlated with the FFD (r =0.95). Kappa statistics for the SABS grades given independently by the subjects and the examiner were high at 0.98. These findings suggest that the SABS may be used as an alternative to FFD measurements in epidemiological studies.