ABSTRACT

Purpose: The quantification of pressure or force being applied during mobilization techniques has been subject of debate in manual therapy. The primary aim of this study was to determine the reliability and con-current validity of modified sphygmomanometer and bathroom weighing.

 Relevance: Recently, there have been efforts to use modified sphygmanometer and bathroom weighing scale to quantify force applied during digital pressure (DP) application. There appears to be dearth of information on the reliability and validity of the instruments.

Participants: One hundred and twenty volunteers aged 18 - 65 years participated in this study.

Methods:Weighing scale was used to quantify body weight change and modified sphygmomanometer was used to quantify abdominal pressure change while applying DP simultaneously on day one (1) and day two (2) with test-re-test interval of 2weeks.

Analysis: Data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Also, Pearson product moment correlation was used to correlate the variables.

Results: The result of the study showed that there was significant correlation between the body weight change values on the weighing scale on day 1 and after 2 weeks (day 2), (r =  0. 91, P < 0.001). There was also significant correlation in the abdominal pressure change between 1 and day 2 using modified sphygmomanometer (r = 0.94, p < 0.001. The result of the study also showed significant correlation between body weight change values and abdominal pressure change values (r = 0.49, P < 0.001).

Conclusions: The study concluded that bathroom weighing scale and modified sphygmomanometer are reliable and valid for quantifying magnitude of pressure applied during DP.

Implications: This study implied that bathroom weighing scale and sphygmomanometer can be used to quantify magnitude of pressure applied during DP.

Keywords: Reliability, con-current validity, Weighing scale, Sphygmomanometer, Digital pressure.