Reliability of pediatric reach test in children with hearing impairment

ObjectiveThe objective of this study was to evaluate the reliability of pediatric reach test in children with hearing impairment.MethodsA total of 65 hearing impaired children completed the standing section of PRT. Two raters evaluated all the included children in standing section of PRT on two separate occasions.ResultsICC was used to generate reliability coefficients for intra-rater and inter-rater PRT measurements using a two-way mixed effects model, single measure reliability with absolute agreement. The ICC values reported good to excellent reliability as the lower values of the 95% CI was above 0.4. The SEMs reported in this study was below 0.5 cm.ConclusionThis study indicates that PRT can reliably measure the limits of stability in children with hearing impairment. Using the PRT, balance deficits can be identified, and a reliable baseline measures may be established for hearing impaired children before initiating interventions.