Reliability of a laser beam device for the assessment of head repositioning accuracy in patients with chronic neck pain

Objective: Examination of test-retest and inter-rater reliability of a laser beam device for the assessment of cervical proprioception in patients with chronic neck pain.

Methods: Twenty patients with chronic neck pain were conveniently recruited. The patients performed a head-to-neutral test at four different movement directions (flexion, extension, left and right rotation) and a head-to-target test at two different movement directions (left and right rotation) by wearing on their head a laser beam device. Five trials were performed at each direction. The assessment was performed by two different raters for examining inter-rater reliability. One of the raters reassessed the patients after a one-hour resting period to examine test-retest reliability.

Results: Test-retest reliability was found to be moderate to good (intraclass correlation coefficient [ICC] .56-.81, standard error of measurement [SEM] 2.09-5.01 cm, smallest detectable difference [SDD] 5.79-13.87 cm). Inter-rater reliability was found to be moderate to excellent (ICC .59-.92, SEM 1.75-3.27 cm, SDD 4.85-9.05 cm).

Conclusions: A laser beam device presented moderate to excellent reproducibility, however relatively high measurement error for assessing cervical proprioception in patients with chronic neck pain.