Reliability of the Star Excursion Balance Test in healthy young adults

OBJECTIVE To investigate the intra-rater, inter-rater and test-retest reliability of the Star Excursion Balance Test (SEBT) in a young healthy Greek population. METHOD The sample consisted of 20 people (10 men and 10 women) aged 18-23 years who had no pathological features that could affect the measurements. During the assessment procedure, the participants had to perform three valid trials for each of the eight directions of the SEBT, with each of the limbs. After completion of the measurements by the examiner A, the whole process was conducted by the examiner B. After a break of 30 minutes, the procedure was repeated by the examiner A. Each examiner was blind to the measurements of the other examiner. Firstly, the non-standardized indicators were recorded and they were then standardized according to the leg length of each participant. For statistical analysis, both the standardized and the non-standardized indicators were used and comparison was made between them. For the examination of reliability, intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC), standard error of measurement (SEM) and smallest detectable difference (SDD) were used. RESULTS The results showed that the SEBT had moderate to good intra-rater reliability (ICC=0.71- 0.89), good to excellent inter-rater reliability (ICC=0.79-0.95) and good to excellent test-retest reliability (ICC=0.80- 0.91). CONCLUSIONS The SEBT appears to be a reliable tool for the assessment of dynamic balance, making it suit- able for use in clinical practice and research.