Time Measurement Validity and Reliability of the 4 × 10-M Shuttle Run Test in Adult Population: the ADULT-FIT Project.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to analyze the time measurement validity and reliability (between raters and test-retest) of the 4 x 10-m shuttle run test to assess motor fitness in adults, according to gender, age, and physical activity levels.Design: Cross-sectional. A total of 230 adults (86 women) aged 18-64 years participated in the study.Methods: The time taken to complete the 4 x 10-m shuttle run test was recorded simultaneously by a trained and an untrained rater (inter-rater reliability) and by photoelectric cells (time measurement validity). 48-72 h later, the test was repeated under the same conditions (test-retest reliability).Results: The systematic error for trained rater vs. photocell was close to zero (0.0125, p < 0.01), with an effect size of 0.006; and for both, untrained rater vs. photocell and trained rater vs. untrained rater was similar to 0.2 s (p < 0.001) with an effect size of 0.09. For the test-retest reliability, the systematic error was 0.05 s (p < 0.001), with an effect size of 0.26, the intraclass correlation coefficient was 0.998 and the coefficient of variation reported a variability of 0.73 %.Results were not influenced by gender and age, while these improved for active vs. non-active participants.Conclusions: Findings indicate that measurements with trained raters are a valid and reliable method for assessing the 4 x 10-m shuttle run test in adults. It is highly recommended that raters be trained to minimize the measurement error.(c) 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of Sports Medicine Australia. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).