Weak Relationships Between Three Clinical Assessments and Core Stability Tests

Core stability measurements are commonly used to identify individuals who may be at risk for athletic injuries. However, the relationship between core stability tests and other clinical assessments used to assess injury risk are not well established. The purpose if this study is to determine the relationships between three clinical assessments and core stability tests. We anticipate the relationships between the three clinical assessments and core stability tests will be low and not significant. Participants included 36 college-aged males and females. The three clinical assessments consisted of the Star Excursion Test and the Frontal Plane Projection Angel (FPPA) of the knee during a single leg squat and drop. The core stability tests included isometric trunk and hip strength tests and core muscular endurance measurements. A Pearson correlation coefficient analysis was performed to estimate the relationship between the two groups of measurements. The results found low coefficients of determination (R2 ) between the clinical assessments and core stability tests. R2 between the star excursion, single leg squat, and the single leg drop tests and the core stability tests ranged from R2 = .0001 to .179, .0001 to .194 and .00004 to = .068, respectively. Weak relationships between the three clinical assessments and core stability tests were observed. Therefore, we suggest these clinical assessments should not be used to evaluate core stability. Although this study was conducted in a laboratory, the tests and measures performed are commonly used in a clinical setting