Investigating Reliability and Validity of the Tests of Change of Direction and Reactive Agility in Patients After Knee Surgery

Abstract

Agility is one of the key performance factors important for prevention of falls. There is a lack of tests applicable for testing agility in untrained, older and clinical populations. The aim of tis research was to investigate the reliability and validity of the newly-designed testing protocol of change of direction speed (CODS) and reactive agility (RAG) in the clinical population. Research comprised 25 individuals older than 40 years of age who underwent knee surgery. Variables included age, gender, anthropometric characteristics, RAG, and CODS tests. Results displayed new tests as being reliable among patients after knee surgery. Also, tests were valid with regard to body mass and age (with better results in younger and lighter participants). Participants achieved similar results in CODS and RAG, with strong correlation between tests, which implies that CODS and RAG represent similar abilities in this population. Future studies should investigate the metric characteristics of here proposed tests in other subsamples.