Introduction: Walking the stairs is an important functional activity of people. It preserves mobility and independence in everyday life. The hip arthrosis results in walking deterioration both on flat ground and stairs. Walking the stairs is more difficult. Greater muscular strength and mobility is necessary. The stair climb test enables monitoring the progression of hip arthrosis and assessing functional capabilities of an individual. The purpose of the study is to assess the intra-rater and the inter-rater reliability of the nine stair climb test for patients with the hip arthrosis. Methods: The assessment of the intra-rater reliability involved 20 subjects without hip arthrosis and 31 subjects with hip arthrosis. The assessment of the inter-rater reliability involved 26 subjects with hip arthrosis. All the subjects were took the nine stair climbing test twice within a 13 to 19-day interval. The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC), the standard error measurement (SEM) and the minimal detectable change (MDC) at the 90% confidence interval were calculated in order to assess the reliability. Results: ICC of the intra-rater reliability in subjects without hip arthrosis was 0,94, SEM 0,21 and MDC 0,50. ICC of the intra-rater reliability in subject with hip arthrosis was 0,96, SEM 1,32 and MDC 3,09. ICC of the inter-rater reliability in subjects with hip arthrosis was 0,99, SEM 1,46 and MDC 3,41. Conclusion: The intra-rater reliability and the inter-rater reliability for the nine stair climb test in subjects without and with hip arthrosis proved excellent. The test is simple, reliable, quick and economically acceptable. Our findings of intra-rater reliability of the nine stair climb test for patients with the hip arthrosis are in concordance with other authors.
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