LAUSR

OBJECTIVE The objective of this study was to determine the accuracy of 3 clinical tests (lateral step, tandem gait. and single-leg stance) in identifying older women with reduced hip abductor muscle strength and to determine the posttest probability of each test and of their combination in changing the certainty of diagnosis. METHODS In this cross-sectional study, a total of 123 older women received clinical testing to obtain the variables lateral step height, time for tandem gait execution, percentage of errors in tandem gait, and time of permanence on single-leg stance and were tested for isometric hip abductor peak torque using an isokinetic dynamometer. Only the dominant lower limb was evaluated. Multivariate linear regression analysis with adjustment was performed in order to determine the association among variables, followed by the receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) to identify clinical variables that can discriminate older women with reduced abductor muscle strength. Posttest probability was then calculated based on the ROC data. RESULTS Although the 4 clinical variables showed correlation with abductor peak torque, only lateral step and tandem gait time were able to discriminate reduced abductor strength with low accuracy (area under the curve [AUC] was between 0.5 and 0.7). However, the combination of lateral step and tandem gait time increased posttest probability from 47% (prevalence of weakness in the population) to 76% when both tests were positive and reduced it from 47% to 18% when both tests were negative. CONCLUSION The combination of the lateral step test and tandem gait time is useful for the indirect assessment of hip abductors strength in community-dwelling older women.