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Reproducibility
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Reproducibility
It is virtually impossible for a subject to apply for instance
50% of maximum muscle force. The only force that is
reproducible is maximum force.
To ensure the reproducibility of the force- measurement, all
factors that have influence on the measurement must be kept
constant.
Factors that are of influence can be within the subject, the
researcher, in the protocol or in the testing environment.
Some of the factors are difficult to standardize while others
are difficult to control.
Factors of influence are:
Subject’s body weight, starting position, stabilisation,
motivation, learning effect, fatigue and training ability.
Researcher’s position of fixating arm and hand,
instructions to the patient, reading of the
Instrumentation.
Instrumentation type, place of application on subject’s
body, comfort during contact with subject’s body, ability
to determine effective line of force, reliability
Protocol type of muscle contraction (isometric,
isokinetic, concentric or eccentric), direction of force,
number of repetitions, (sub) maximal etc.
Environment temperature, audio-visual feedback.
With the microFET2 in mind with a ‘break-testing’ protocol,
standardization is possible for:
Starting position of subject and researcher,
stabilisation, point of application of transducer and
instructions to the subject.
Always try to keep the subject’s motivation high
(encourage the subject to perform well) and make sure that
the environmental factors are kept at a constant level.
These way reliable and reproducible recordings will be
possible with the microFET2.
