Measuring Lumbar Flexion with the Modified-Modified Schober and Double Inclinometer Techniques.

Background and Purpose: Various methods have been developed for measuring lumbar range of motion, however, there appears to be little agreement on the best way to evaluate joint motion. The purpose of this study was to compare the Modified-Modified Schober (MMS) technique to the Double Inclinometer (DI) technique for assessing lumbar flexion range of motion (ROM). Using statistical regression procedures, we took the values obtained from the MMS method and attempted to determine the values for the Dr technique. Subjects: A total of 50 undergraduate and graduate student subjects were used for the data collection, 24 males and 26 females. The subjects ranged in age from 19 to 29 years (X=22.78, SD=2.61) and were considered to be normal based on our exclusion criteria. Methods: The researchers took three measurements on each subject using both techniques. The average of these measurements was used for statistical analysis. Results: According to our regression statistics, the correlation between the MMS and DI techniques was .45. The square of the correlation (coefficient of determination) was .206. Therefore, 20.6% of the variance in our Dr results can be accounted for by knowing the variance in the results of MMS. Discussion and Conclusion: The protocol used in this study does allow for some predictive ability between the MMS and DI techniques; however, given that we only have 20.6% of the information we need to make an accurate prediction of the DI method in degrees, it does not appear to be clinically relevant. Further research is warranted to determine the extent to which anthropometric factors influence the variance between the MMS and DI techniques