Effects of Trial Duration on Intrasession Reliability of Single Leg Balance Testing on Stable and Unstable Surfaces

Context: Single leg balance testing is a commonly used tool in sports medicine; however, there has been no consensus on trial duration needed to obtain reliable measures. Objective: This investigation sought to determine the minimum trial duration required to obtain the highest intrasession single and average trial reliability for single leg balance testing on stable and unstable surfaces using dominant and nondominant limbs. Design: Intrasession reliability. Setting: Biomechanics laboratory. Participants: 70 healthy (35 men, 35 women), physically active young adults aged 22.8 ± 2.8 y divided into 3 subgroups (n = 10, 30, 30) across a 3-phase study. Methods: 3 phases of single leg balance testing were performed. For phase 1, the duration of time each participant could maintain posture on each limb/surface were computed. Phase 2 considered performance for 6 cumulative time intervals (5s, 10s, 15s, 20s, 25s, 30s). Phase 3 served to solidify results of phase 2 by computing reliability of 15s trials. Main outcome measures: Overall stability index of the center of pressure and platform tilt. Results: Intraclass correlation coefficients for phase 2 ranged from .74 (5s interval for nondominant limb on unstable surface) to .94 (20s interval for nondominant limb on stable surface). Phase 3 intraclass correlation coefficients ranged from .66 to .78 for single trial and .85 to .92 for 3 trial average with coefficients of variation ranging from 23.9% to 40.4% for single trial and 13.8% to 23.0% for 3 trial average. Conclusions: These results ultimately suggest 15s as the optimal trial duration to provide reliable measures while reducing compensatory event occurrence