Chiropractic muscle testers rise to the challenge of validating their work
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Cheryl Gervasio International College of Applied Kinesiology, Membership and Publications Manager
icak@dci-kansascity.com
A landmark study presenting the basic science and clinical research evidence for the reliability and validity of the manual muscle test was published this week in the Journal of Chiropractic and Osteopathy [Click to go to the study].
The study, titled “On the Reliability and Validity of Manual Muscle Testing: A Literature Review”, by Drs. George J. Goodheart and Scott C. Cuthbert presented the results of more than 100 peer-reviewed studies related to the manual muscle test (MMT) and the applied kinesiology chiropractic technique (AK).
The aim of this review was to provide an historical overview, literature review, description, synthesis and critique of the reliability and validity of the MMT and the AK chiropractic technique in the evaluation of the musculoskeletal and nervous systems.
This paper demonstrates that good reliability and validity exist for the use of MMT for patients with neuromusculoskeletal dysfunction. Muscle testing has been shown to be a reliable and valid method of testing NMS conditions. The studies demonstrated good external and internal validity, and the 12 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on MMT showed that MMT findings were not dependent upon examiner bias. Muscle testing, which is the backbone of Applied Kinesiology, now has support for its use in the field of chiropractic to diagnose and treat neuromusculoskeletal dysfunction.
The Journal of Chiropractic and Osteopathy is one of only two journals in the chiropractic profession that is part of MEDLINE [Click here to go to article], the National Library of Medicine (NLM) bibliographic database.