Predicting sport and occupational lower extremity injury risk through movement quality screening: a systematic review
One page on PainSci cites Whittaker 2016: The Functional Movement Screen (FMS)
PainSci commentary on Whittaker 2016: ?This page is one of thousands in the PainScience.com bibliography. It is not a general article: it is focused on a single scientific paper, and it may provide only just enough context for the summary to make sense. Links to other papers and more general information are provided wherever possible.
This review of 17 “mostly low quality” studies of the relationship between leg injuries and movement quality shows “inconsistent evidence.” In other words, we still have no idea if we can tell who’s going to get leghurt based on screening people for quality-of-movement trouble. Standard caveats about garbage-in-garbage-out reviews seem to apply here: the results are officially inconclusive, but the absence of a clear signal is damning.
original abstract †Abstracts here may not perfectly match originals, for a variety of technical and practical reasons. Some abstacts are truncated for my purposes here, if they are particularly long-winded and unhelpful. I occasionally add clarifying notes. And I make some minor corrections.
BACKGROUND: Identification of risk factors for lower extremity (LE) injury in sport and military/first-responder occupations is required to inform injury prevention strategies.
OBJECTIVE: To determine if poor movement quality is associated with LE injury in sport and military/first-responder occupations.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: 5 electronic databases were systematically searched. Studies selected included original data; analytic design; movement quality outcome (qualitative rating of functional compensation, asymmetry, impairment or efficiency of movement control); LE injury sustained with sport or military/first-responder occupation. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines were followed. 2 independent authors assessed the quality (Downs and Black (DB) criteria) and level of evidence (Oxford Centre of Evidence-Based Medicine model).
RESULTS: Of 4361 potential studies, 17 were included. The majority were low-quality cohort studies (level 4 evidence). Median DB score was 11/33 (range 3-15). Heterogeneity in methodology and injury definition precluded meta-analyses. The Functional Movement Screen was the most common outcome investigated (15/17 studies). 4 studies considered inter-relationships between risk factors, 7 reported diagnostic accuracy and none tested an intervention programme targeting individuals identified as high risk. There is inconsistent evidence that poor movement quality is associated with increased risk of LE injury in sport and military/first-responder occupations.
CONCLUSIONS: Future research should focus on high-quality cohort studies to identify the most relevant movement quality outcomes for predicting injury risk followed by developing and evaluating preparticipation screening and LE injury prevention programmes through high-quality randomised controlled trials targeting individuals at greater risk of injury based on screening tests with validated test properties.
related content
- “Evaluation of the Functional Movement Screen as an Injury Prediction Tool Among Active Adult Populations: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis,” Dorrel et al, Sports Health, 2015.
- “Why screening tests to predict injury do not work-and probably never will … : a critical review,” Bahr, British Journal of Sports Medicine, 2016.
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- Recovery trajectories in common musculoskeletal complaints by diagnosis contra prognostic phenotypes. Aasdahl 2021 BMC Musculoskelet Disord.
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