The Intra- and Inter-rater Reliability of an Arm Care Screening Tool in High School Baseball Coaches.
Kyle A Matsel, Stephanie N Brown, Matt C Hoch and 4 others
PMID 34909258WHAT IT FOUND
High school baseball coaches can reliably screen players for movement limitations using a new three-minute tool.
After just one hour of training, coaches agreed with a physical therapist on pass or fail results for 95% of players, matching the therapist's own consistency.
Key findings
01The mean inter-rater reliability between the physical therapist and the coaches was excellent, with a Cohen's kappa value of 0.89 and 95% absolute agreement.
02The mean intra-rater reliability for all raters was substantial, with a Cohen's kappa value of 0.76 and 89% absolute agreement.
03There was no statistically significant difference in reliability between the experienced physical therapist and the coaches who had only one hour of training.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
The study only included high school baseball players, so the results may not apply to professional or collegiate athletes. Intra-rater reliability was tested by comparing live scoring to video scoring. During live tests, raters could see the player from multiple angles, but the video only showed a single view from behind, which could affect how consistently a rater scores over time. The study measured reliability (consistency of scoring) but did not test validity (whether the ACS actually predicts injury risk).
Declared interests
The authors declare no conflicts of interest. The study was approved by the institutional review board at the University of Kentucky.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume the ACS identifies injury risk. This study only proved that coaches can score the movements consistently. The authors explicitly state that validation of the tool's ability to detect physical impairments and predict injury is still needed before mainstream use.