The Determination of Effort During the Evaluation of the Injured Worker

For occupational therapists to obtain accurate pictures of clients and how they perform during assessments utilized within their scope of practice, full motivation and effort are needed for any result to be precise. When these two factors are not completely present, the dependability of performance measures is interrogated, with coefficients of variance (CVs) being one of them. This study aimed to establish an overall cutoff CV that could be used as a guide to determine if individuals were providing full effort during therapeutic evaluations. This was done through isometric strength testing in healthy college-aged individuals through maximal and submaximal effort testing. This study was a within-subjects research design, with participants being assigned to either an odd or even number, indicating whether they started with the 100% (maximal) testing condition or the 50% (submaximal) testing condition. A hand dynamometer was used, and the data produced was analyzed through the IBM Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) Software. When instructed to provide submaximal effort (50%), the propensity was to give around 10% more. The results yielded tentative support for using the CV statistic as a potential mean for determining if true effort is being exerted due to there being a statistically significant increase in the coefficient of variance in the 50% (submaximal) testing condition. Conclusively, the data collected during this study allowed for a general cutoff range to be established and used as a baseline throughout occupational therapy clinics.