Gay, J, Rank, S, Sheakley, J, Billek-Sawhney, B; Graduate School of Physical Therapy, Slippery Rock University, Slippery Rock, PA. jjg2602@sru.edu.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between the results of the Functional Reach Test (FRT) and the Adapted Reach Test (ART) and examine the reliability of the ART as an alternative for the FRT. BACKGROUND: Due to changing practice settings and limited space and resources, therapists often modify existing tools to fit their needs. The ART, which has not been previously described in the literature, is a modification of the FRT currently used by some physical therapists. SUBJECTS: A non-probability, convenience sample of 30 community-dwelling residents (23 females, 7 males; age range=65-93) volunteered. METHOD: The participants attended a single testing session. For each participant, the FRT was administered once. The ART was administered twice following the same basic protocol as the FRT, except distance reached was marked on a hand-held manila folder and measured with a standard ruler instead of a yardstick affixed to the wall. ANALYSIS: The Pearson correlation coefficient (r), dependent t-test, and Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC) were used for statistical analyses. A Spearman correlation coefficient (r_s) was also used to compare the fall risk categories obtained by administering the FRT and the ART to the same group of participants. An alpha level of 0.05 was set a priori. RESULTS: The correlation (r) between FRT measures (X) and ART measures (Y) was 0.723. However, the dependent t-tests showed a significant difference between mean FRT and ART measures (p=0.001). For test-retest reliability for the ART, all correlations were ³ 0.793. For inter-rater reliability, all correlations were ³ 0.998. The ICC’s (2,3) comparing pairs of raters were all ³ 0.998. The Spearman correlation coefficient was 0.498 (p=0.005). CONCLUSIONS: Although inter-rater reliability of the ART was high, the measures obtained using the ART were significantly different from those produced by the FRT. The use of this adaptation of the FRT cannot be recommended without further research. FUNDING SOURCE: Graduate Studies Department of Slippery Rock University.

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