Report by Tyler Collings
Concurrent validity and test-retest reliability of VALD ForceDecks strength, balance, and movement assessment tasks
Original Research published in Journal of Science and Medicine (May 2024) DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsams.2024.04.014
Tyler J. Collings1,2 PhD , Yuri Lopes Lima1,2 MSc, Benjamin Dutallis1,2 AEP, Matthew N. Bourne1,2 PhD
1School of Health Sciences and Social Work, Griffith
University, Gold Coast Campus, QLD, Australia.
2Griffith Centre of Biomedical and Rehabilitation Engineering
(GCORE), Menzies Health Institute Queensland, Australia.
Corresponding author: Dr Tyler Collings
1 Parklands Drive, Griffith University, Gold Coast, Southport 4215, QLD,
Australia.
Email:
t.collings@griffith.edu.au
Funding Declaration: Funding was provided by VALD to cover the cost of data collection, analysis, and reporting of data. Data analysis was performed independently of VALD.
Inclusion/exclusion criteria
Participants included 16 healthy individuals recruited from a population
of Australian University students. To be included, participants were
required to be aged between 18-40 years, physically active multiple
times per week (30+ minutes), and free from any current injuries or
neurological conditions that may influence the ability to perform tests,
any major injuries in the previous 1-2 months that may influence test
results, and any current shoulder pain or instability, or lower back
pain. All participants were encouraged to refrain from performing
resistance training or intense physical activity on the day before
testing.
Ethics
All participants provided written informed consent prior to data
collection. Study ethics were approved by the Griffith University Human
Research Ethics Committee (GU reference: 2023/208).
| Mean | SD | Range | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Age (years) | 25.9 | 2.9 | 20.3-29.7 |
| Weight (kg) | 71.8 | 14.9 | 50.2-102.5 |
| Height (cm) | 174.2 | 12.4 | 150-193.5 |
| Days between tests | 7.2 | 0.7 | 6-9 |
Data were collected at the Griffith University motion laboratory, Gold Coast, Australia.
Force plates
Force plate data were acquired from the ForceDecks (FDLite, V.2, VALD,
Brisbane, Australia) positioned on top of a tri-axial force plate
embedded in the laboratory floor (AMTI, MA, United States). This
arrangement enabled vertical ground reaction forces and centre of
pressure to be measured from the ForceDecks as well as gold-standard
laboratory-quality force plates simultaneously. Both force plates
recorded data at 1000 Hz.
Before commencing testing, a weighted plate was used to determine the agreement in vertical ground reaction force between systems under static conditions, indicating a <1-2N difference between force plates.
The ForceDecks were operated using the iOS application (V.1.8.9) on an iPad (Apple, CA, United States) and the laboratory force plates were connected to VALD ForceDecks software for Windows (Microsoft, WA, United States).
Force plate arrangement
