COMPARISON OF STRENGTH OF ELBOW FLEXORS MEASURED BY MANUAL MUSCLE TESTING AND HAND-HELD DYNAMOMETRY IN YOUNG FEMALES: A CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY

Objective: This study compared manual muscle testing with the objective measures of the Hand-Held dynamometer for detecting strength deficit across grades 4 and 5 in elbow flexors of young females. Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 300 young females in the age group of 18–39 years, having strength in grades 4 and 5, were recruited by non-probability convenient sampling. The strength of elbow flexors of dominant and non-dominant extremities was measured according to standard protocols of manual muscle testing and make test of Hand-held dynamometry. The data were tabulated and analyzed by SPSS version 25. The tests used were independent sample t-tests to compare the mean of strength variation in the normal population. A comparison of both tools to predict the extent of variation in the variable of strength was made through Pearson correlation. Results: The weakness in elbow flexors was revealed by grade 4 of manual muscle testing in the young healthy female population. Quantified strength by dynamometer presented a varied range of strength, with overlap in strength in grades 4 and 5. There was a significantly weaker correlation in both techniques (0.242 on non-dominant side and 0.317 on the dominant side) in the detection of strength differences at a p-value of 0.00. Conclusion: This study quantified the strength variation across the subjective realm of grades 4 and 5 through dynamometric measures in the elbow flexors of young females. The comparison of strength across both grades showed a weak correlation for the quantification of strength measured through a dynamometer. Keywords: Muscle strength, Dynamometer, Elbow Flexors, Manual Muscle testing.