Reliability of modified functional reach test in the assessment of balance function in people with spinal cord injury: A systematic review.

Objective: To systematically review studies reporting reliability of modified functional reach test for the assessment of sitting balance function in people with spinal cord injury.

Methods: The systematic review was conducted in line with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines, and comprised research studies published in English language from the earliest record till October 2019 on the subject of reliability of modified functional reach test in assessing balance function in adult spinal cord injury patients.. Prominent databases were searched with relevant key words to shortlist the targeted studies.

Results: Of the 108 studies retrieved initially, 6(5.55%) were included in the current systematic review. All the 6(100%) studies reported only test-retest reliability of modified functional reach test. Of them, 4(66.6%) studies measured only forward reach, while 2(33.3%) measured reach in different directions. All 6(100%) studies reported good to excellent reliability of modified functional reach test with interclass coefficient values ranging from 0.78 to 0.99.

Conclusions: Modified functional reach test was found to be a reliable tool for assessing sitting balance function in individuals with spinal cord injury.