Affiliation:
1. School of Health & Rehabilitation Sciences University of Queensland St Lucia Australia
2. Physiotherapy Department, Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital Herston Australia
3. RECOVER Injury Research Centre University of Queensland Herston Australia
Abstract
AbstractBackgroundDuring the COVID‐19 pandemic, many individuals sought healthcare virtually. Physiotherapy is integral in managing temporomandibular disorders (TMDs); therefore, establishing how key physical tests can be appropriately adapted to telehealth is paramount.ObjectivesTo establish the validity and reliability of telehealth (specifically videoconferencing) assessments against in‐person assessments on a battery of TMD physical tests.MethodA repeated‐measures study design was undertaken. Thirty‐six adult participants (19 healthy and 17 TMD) underwent concurrent temporomandibular joint (TMJ) physiological movement measurements via videoconferencing and in‐person as per standard clinical practice. Inclusion criteria included the presence of central incisors and no significant comorbidities precluding a safe telehealth examination. Participants with TMD completed seven additional pain provocation physical tests.ResultsAgreement between telehealth and in‐person physiological movement measures was excellent (ICC >0.90, 95% CI: 0.53 to >0.99). Inter‐ and intra‐rater reliability for telehealth measures indicated excellent reliability (ICC >0.97, 95% CI: 0.91 to >0.99). Exact agreement between telehealth and in‐person for provocation tests ranged between 58.8% and 94.1%. Fourteen of the twenty‐six individual measures produced substantial to near perfect agreement (PABAK = 0.65–0.88), seven produced moderate agreement (PABAK = 0.53), while five produced poor to fair agreement (PABAK = 0.18–0.29).ConclusionThere is high level of agreement between telehealth and in‐person measurements of TMJ physiological movement and pain provocation tests.