Article

We investigated test to retest reliability and intraindividual variability of
Romberg ratios in quiet stance posturography. Thirty-six healthy young adults (17
males, 19 females aged 15-38 years) were divided into 3 groups with different
time-intervals between consecutive trials (20 min, 3h and 24h respectively). Each
group performed 5 posturography recordings in a randomized order of eyes open
(EO) or closed (EC)+once after 3 months. We measured the torque variance in
posturography and calculated Romberg ratios. Total postural sway as well as sway
above and below 0.1Hz was analyzed. RESULTS: Test to retest reliability was found
to be poor for Romberg ratios (intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) <0.4)
despite that the individual EO and EC posturography recordings were consistent.
For sway >0.1Hz the Romberg ratios were found to be more consistent (fair to
good, ICC 0.49-0.71). The variation between two consecutive tests (absolute
difference (%)) was high when using the traditional Romberg ratio (EC/EO), but
became less varied if an alternate formula that includes the total postural sway
was used ((EC-EO)/(EC+EO)x100). CONCLUSION: In healthy young adults the
evaluation of ratios from repeated quiet stance posturography show great
intraindividual inconsistency. This questions the Romberg ratio as being a
reliable tool for evaluation of postural performance and determination of sensory
preference in postural control, at least in healthy controls. Whether test-retest
reliability is acceptable in patient cohorts needs to be evaluated for proper
validity of intervention and outcome studies and for detection of clinical
relevance.
CI - Copyright (c) 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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