Abstract for presentation at 6th World Congress on Brain Injury

Objective: To evaluate the test-retest reliability of motor performance measures on physically well-recovered traumatic brain injury (TBI) men compared to a matched control group.
Methods: Measures of balance, running in a figure-of-eight and rhythm-coordination tests. The means and standard deviations are presented as descriptive statistics. The change in the mean, the typical error and the intra-class correlation coefficient were used as statistics of reliability for continuous measurements. Cohen´s kappa coefficient was used as the measure of reliability for categorized test variables.
Results: A slight training effect was observed in most of the performance tests. The best result of consecutive trials within the session showed to have the best consistency. In tandem walking tests and in running figure-of-eight tests the reliability was weaker in the TBI group than in controls but still good. The repeatability of static balance and the rhythm-coordination was moderate in the both groups. The inter-rater differences were minor in all tests.
Conclusion: The tests provide physiotherapists with basic tools to determine balance, rhythm-coordination, and agility. These tests proved to be reliable for testing men suffering from TBI, and therefore can be used in clinical settings.