Investigation of test-retest reliability of quantitative sensory tests in healthy adults

We investigated the test-retest reliability of our study according to the effect of previous physical training at the time of QST and the results of the second measurement at the end of the 15-days period. This was done with 66 people working in Manisa Celal Bayar University Medical Faculty Hospital between 18-45 years old who had no known acute or chronic illnesses and who agreed to participate in the research. Participants were divided into 2 groups of 33 persons, with visual, verbal and physical education named as group 1 and only verbal and visual education named as Group 2, with respect to homogeneous age, sex and education level. One measurement were taken from the right hands (C7 dermatom) and the right lower limb foot (L5 dermatom) of the groups and another after 15 days period. When the measurement results were compared between the groups, it was seen that the QST results did not significantly differ according to the physical education status. This suggests that giving physical education to the individuals does not have a significant effect on the test anxiety and QST measurement results. Analysis of the test-retest reliability of QST in the study showed that Pearson Correlation and ICC values were very high at initial measurements and after 15 days of repeated measurements. Also LoA, SEM and MDD values confirm the high confidence of the test.