Support for a reduction in the number of trials needed for the Star Excursion Balance Test

Objective: To determine the number of trials necessary to achieve stability in excursion distance and stance leg angular displacement for the 8 directions of the Star Excursion Balance Test (SEBT). Design: One-way repeated-measures analysis of variance. Setting: Athletic training laboratory. Participants: Twenty participants (10 men, 10 women) without any known musculoskeletal injuries or neurologic deficits that could have negatively affected their dynamic balance volunteered for the study. Intervention: Participants completed 6 practice and 3 test trials in each of the 8 reach directions of the SEBT. Main Outcome Measures: Excursion distances of the reaching leg normalized to leg length and angular displacement at the hip and knee of the stance leg in all 3 planes of movement were determined. Results: There were significant increases in excursion distance, hip flexion. and knee flexion for 7, 4. and 5 of the 8 reach directions, respectively. Conclusions: For the majority of the reach directions, maximum excursion distances and stance leg angular displacement values achieved stability within the first 4 practice trials, thus justifying a reduction in the recommended number of practice trials from 6 to 4 and supporting the trend toward simplifying SEBT administration.