Evidence map›Paper›PMID 32468158›Full record

ArticleEuropean journal of pediatrics2020

Congenital muscular torticollis: the reliability of visual estimation in the assessment of cervical spine active rotation and head tilt by physiotherapists and the impact of clinical experience.

Anthea Seager, Dara Meldrum, Ronan Conroy, Helen P French

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Article in European journal of pediatrics, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
3citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

3 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
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4 · The record

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PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors.

Anthea SeagerDepartment of Physiotherapy, Children's Health Ireland at Temple Street, Dublin, 1, Ireland. anthea.seager@cuh.ie.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7018-7649
Dara MeldrumSchool of Medicine, Trinity College, Dublin University, Dublin 2, Ireland.
Ronan ConroyDivision of Population Health Sciences, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, St Stephen's Green, Dublin 2, Ireland.
Helen P FrenchSchool of Physiotherapy, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, St Stephen's Green, Dublin 2, Ireland.

Funding

Temple Street Foundation, Dublin, Ireland RPAC 15-02
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

There is a lack of reliable and valid measurement tools to assess neck function in infants with congenital muscular torticollis, and most physiotherapists use visual estimation, which has not been adequately tested for reliability in this population. We examined the reliability of visual estimation of head tilt and active neck rotation in the upright position, on infants with congenital muscular torticollis by physiotherapists. We recruited 31 infants and 26 physiotherapists. Therapists rated videos of infants' head position in the frontal plane (tilt) and transverse plane (active rotation) using visual estimation, on two occasions at least one week apart. Overall, inter-rater reliability was good (mean ICC, 0.68 ± 0.20; mean SEM, 5.1° ± 2.1°). Rotation videos had better reliability (mean ICC, 0.79 ± 0.14) than head tilt videos (mean ICC, 0.58 ± 0.20). Intra-rater reliability was excellent (mean ICC, 0.85 ± 0.08). Both head tilt and rotation had excellent reliability (mean ICC, 0.84 ± 0.08 for head tilt and 0.85 ± 0.09 for rotation). There was no correlation between intra-rater reliability and clinical experience.Conclusion Visual estimation had excellent intra-rater reliability in the assessment of neck active rotation and head tilt on infants with congenital muscular torticollis. Visual estimation had acceptable inter-rater reliability in the assessment of neck active rotation but not of head tilt. There was a wide variation in reliability with no correlation between reliability and clinical experience. Assessment tools for head tilt that are more psychometrically robust should be developed. What is Known: • A thorough assessment of infants presenting with torticollis is essential, using assessment tools with robust psychometric properties • Visual estimation is the most commonly used method of assessment of neck function in infants with torticollis What is New: • Visual estimation had excellent intra-rater reliability in the assessment of neck active rotation and head tilt in the upright position in videos of infants and acceptable inter-rater reliability in the assessment of rotation but not of head tilt • Physiotherapists' clinical experience had minimal relationship with reliability.

Indexed as

Physical TherapistsTorticollisCervical VertebraeHumansInfantObserver VariationReproducibility of ResultsRotationAssessmentClinical experienceCongenital muscular torticollisPhysical therapyReliabilityVisual estimation

Identifiers

PMID32468158

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.