To Compare the Inter-Rater Reliability of Students using Standardized Hand Tools

Statement: "To compare the inter-rater reliability of students using Standardized Hand tools" Objective: To analyze the inter- rater reliability of occupational therapy students using standardized hand tools

Outcome measures:

1. Jamar Hand Dynamometer for grip strength

2. Baseline pinch gauge for pinch strength

Methodology: A convenience sample of four occupational therapy students volunteered to participate in this study. Total subjects participated in the study were thirty. Four Students were assigned , six different rating teams. Each rater served on 3 rating teams for data collection. Each rating team was assigned four tasks i.e. one grip strength and three pinch strength {tip to tip, three jaw chuck, lateral} of dominant hand.

Data Analysis: The correlation between two of raters is established for 4 different parameters by subjecting the data to Intra-class correlation coefficient test. .This test was preferred over Pearson correlation analysis because it takes the mean of all the subjects where as Pearson takes average of one group and scales the data accordingly.

Results & Conclusion: It was found that perfect agreement exists for lateral pinch test for all the six groups and for other 3 tests were showing strong/moderate agreement for one group where as other 5 groups had shown perfect agreement