Some readers will peruse this month's table of contents and conclude that the Journal has again indulged itself in its fixation with clinical measurement, a subject many see as irrelevant to clinical practice. I share their wish that we may see future issues devoid of measurement studies. Physical therapists have among their armamentarium for clinical practice literally hundreds of measurements.
New measurements seem to be suggested almost daily.
We now are awash in measurements of dubious quality that are used for questionable decision making and that are chosen not for their scientific merit but for a host of other reasons. These are real clinical issues. The acceptable error in a measurement is a clinical judgment based on how a measurement will be used. Not all measurements are equally error free. When people simply say that a measurement is or is not reliable, they err.