Intra-Rater and Inter-Rater Reliability and Agreement of the Scapular Dyskinesis Test in Young Men with Forward Head and Round Shoulder Posture

Background: forward head and round shoulder posture (fhrsp) is believedto be related to scapular dyskinesis (sd), placing increased stress on the neckand shoulder, leading to pain and dysfunction. therefore, a clinical methodwith sufficient reliability to distinguish normal and abnormal scapular positionand motion among people with fhrsp is called for. this study aims to evaluateintra-rater and inter-rater reliability and agreement of the scapular dyskinesistest (sdt) in people with fhrsp.methods: this reliability study included 60 young men who were identified ashaving fhrsp, having been measured by the photogrammetry method. theclinical examination included a scapular dyskinesis test (sdt), which is adynamic and visually based test to classify the presence of sd. it was performedby two raters who were blinded to each other’s test results on two different days.intra- and inter-rater reliabilities were determined using the kappa coefficientwith linear weighting for the ordinal classification of sd by sdt.results: inter-rater agreement values ranged from 90.8% to 92.1%. furthermore,the inter-rater reliabilities presented an almost perfect reliability (k>0.82). forintra-rater agreement, raters presented high percentage values of agreementbetween the two measurements (88.9% to 92.5%). intra-rater reliability for raterswas substantial to almost perfect (k>0.77).conclusion: the intra- and inter-rater reliability and agreement of the sdtobtained by two raters was substantial to almost perfect among young men withfhrsp. therefore, it seems that sdt is a simple method to distinguish normaland abnormal scapular position and motion in order to screen or assess beforedeveloping prevention programs.