Reproducibility and Validity of a Toe-grip Measurements Made with a Hand Dynamometer

Purpose: To investigate the reliability and validity of a toe-grip measurement method using a hand dynamometer, and to examine its usefulness. Subjects and Methods: The subjects were 9 elderly rehabilitation out-patients. Using a hand dynamometer and a commercial measuring instrument toe-grip strength meter, toe-grip strength was measured, as well as muscle activities at the time of the measurements. The reliability and correlation of the two methods were compared, as well as the the toe-grip strengths, and muscle activities of the anterior tibialis, soleus, and abductor hallucis. Results: The intra-rater reliabilities of both methods were good. A high correlation was found between the two measurement methods of toe-grip strength, and no differences were found in any of the muscle activities of the two methods. Conclusion: The toe-grip strength measurement method using a hand dynamometer has high reproducibility and validity, but care is needed since the values obtained with the commercial toe-grip strength meter were different.