RESEARCH ARTICLE
Grip and Pinch Strength in Healthy Subjects and Patients with Primary Osteoarthritis of the Hand: A Reproducibility Study
Efrat Ziv1, 3, Hagar Patish2, 3, Zeevi Dvir*, 2
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2008Volume: 2
First Page: 86
Last Page: 90
Publisher ID: TOORTHJ-2-86
DOI: 10.2174/1874325000802010086
Article History:
Received Date: 28/3/2008Revision Received Date: 07/4/2008
Acceptance Date: 22/4/2008
Electronic publication date: 09/5/2008
Collection year: 2008

open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/) which permits unrestrictive use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
Grip, Key Pinch (KP), 3 Point Pinch (3PP) and 2 Point Pinch (2PP) strengths were measured twice weekly in 32 women with primary osteoarthritis of the hand (POAH) and 25 healthy women. Reproducibility was assessed by standard error of measurement (SEM) and the coefficient of variation (CV). Cutoff values for significant improvement or deterioration were determined and expressed, respectively, as either the smallest detectable difference (SDD) or critical difference (CD). The SDD and CD of grip and pinch strengths were higher in POAH patients than in the healthy group. Among the pinch tests the 2PP findings were least reproducible. The relatively high SDD and CD scores indicate that improvement may be detected only in patients with moderate to severe weakness of grip and pinch. Furthermore, in POAH patients, diagnosing strength changes using the 2PP test is invalid due to low reproducibility.