CHS Office of Research

Kris Kaufman

Physical Therapy student and class president Kris Kaufman of Northern Kentucky will graduate in May 2007 with his Masters Degree in PT. He says that he is most interested in amputation rehabilitation.

Kris presented his research in February at the American Physical Therapy Association’s Combined Sections Meeting in Boston. He became interested in performing research related to muscle strength and strength decline with age and its association with an increased risk for falls when he co-organized a health fair at a Lexington assisted living complex for older adults. He was able to incorporate his research as part of the health fair, allowing him to investigate the reliability of a muscle testing tool while also serving community-dwelling adults.

Kris has recently been completing internships at Wright Patterson AFB in Dayton, OH, Baylor University Hospital in Dallas, TX and Brooke Army Medical Center’s Amputation Clinic in San Antonio, TX. He says that his internship with the military’s war-battered amputees added a lot of knowledge to his skill set in amputation rehabilitation.

Kris' research abstract

Muscle Strength in Community-Dwelling Older Adults Assessed with Hand-Held Dynamometry: An Interrater and Intrarater Reliability Study

Kristopher Kaufman, PT Student; Tony English, PT, M.S.Ed.; Scott Shaffer, PT; Elissa Withrow, PT Student; Anne Harrison, PT, Ph.D.

Purpose: The primary purpose of the present study is to evaluate the reliability of hand-held dynamometry in the lower extremities of community-dwelling older adults. This study utilizes a dynamometric protocol in a health promotion setting targeting fall prevention. Both interrater reliability (testing between examiners) and intrarater reliability (test-retest by the same examiner) are evaluated.

Methods: Hip abduction, knee extension and ankle dorsiflexion were tested bilaterally in a sitting position using handheld dynamometry in four testing procedures: abduction break test, knee extension break test, knee extension make test, ankle dorsiflexion break test. Two trials of each procedure on each leg were performed and a mean muscle strength score was calculated. Data were analyzed (SPSS version 13.0) using Intraclass Correlation Coefficients (ICC), models 2-2 and 3-1 for interrater and intrarater reliability, respectively. The level of significance was set at p < 0.05.

Conclusions / relevance: Handheld dynamometry is a portable and reliable tool when screening to identify health risks. Reliability correlations were high, but CI and SEMs were large for some measures indicating variance between testers and days tested. Although additional research is recommended to fully corroborate all the results of this study, this is a good starting point for use in health promotion settings where screening is the primary objective. Muscle strength is highly correlated with fall risk. Strength in the community-dwelling older adult is a key to maintaining function and preventing the co-morbidities associated with injury and inactivity. Handheld dynamometry is a quick and accurate method for strength screening in the community-dwelling older adult.

Kris Kaufman
Recent graduate of UK College of Health Sciences with Masters in Physical Therapy.