The inter-rater reliability of the Smith hand function test: A South African perspective

Introduction The Smith hand function test is a performance-based hand function assessment with limited evidence on its psychometric properties. This study was conducted to investigate the inter-rater reliability of the Smith hand function test and for consideration in a developing country context. Methods Twenty-two participants living in Cape Town, South Africa were selected by convenience sampling. The sample performed test–retest of the Smith hand function test items four times by four different raters. The inter-rater reliability was calculated using intraclass correlation coefficients, with 95% confidence interval, testing absolute agreement and consistency. Results The intraclass correlation coefficients were above 0.75 for all subtests apart from the button board test item. This item had intraclass correlation coefficients of 0.579 (agreement) and 0.577 (consistency) with a standard deviation of 3.64 s and a 0.39 s standard error of measurement. Conclusions The inter-rater reliability of the Smith hand function test following a test–retest design by multiple raters was good. This suggests that further psychometric studies on the Smith hand function test could be valuable for clinical hand practice.