Assessing Joint Hypermobility in Preschool-Aged Children

Joint Hypermobility Classes in 9-Year-Old Children from the General Population and Anxiety Symptoms

“…Current criteria also need to prove their reliability and validity (44) and there is debate about their adequacy for pediatric populations (15,45). A person-centered approach could allow us to overcome this drawback by identifying subgroups of children according to their similar hypermobility characteristics within groups and the differences between groups, in contrast to a variable-centered approach, which focuses on the description of the association between variables across individuals.…”

Joint hypermobility and oligoarticular juvenile idiopathic arthritis: What relationship?

“…The rationale for the present study was prompted by the clinical observation that patients with oJIA frequently present JH. It is well known that JH is a sex‐related condition, females being more frequently affected than males and it is also considered a physiological phenomenon in young children …”

“…In the literature, data on the frequency of JH in healthy subjects are quite heterogeneous, ranging from 8.8 to 64% . This great variability is due to differences in ethnicity and diagnostic criteria used, as well as to referral bias .…”

“…JH was defined according to the Beighton score, which consists of the following: (i) passive dorsiflexion of the fifth metacarpophalangeal joint, the score being positive if ≥90° (bilateral testing); (ii) passive hyperextension of the elbow, the score being positive if ≥10° (bilateral testing); (iii) passive hyperextension of the knee, the score being positive if ≥10° (bilateral testing); (iv) passive apposition of the thumb to the flexor side of the forearm, while shoulder is 90° flexed, elbow extended and hand pronated, the score being positive if the whole thumb touches the flexor side of the forearm (bilateral testing); (v) anterior flexion of the trunk with the knees straight, the score being positive if the hand palms rest easily on the floor. For pre‐school children, the last criterion was replaced with the evaluation of passive dorsiflexion of the ankle joint, considered positive for JH when the angle formed by the sole of the foot and the vertical axis of the leg was >30° . JH was defined according to the Beighton criteria, using the 5 of 9 cut‐off score .…”

“…For pre‐school children, the last criterion was replaced with the evaluation of passive dorsiflexion of the ankle joint, considered positive for JH when the angle formed by the sole of the foot and the vertical axis of the leg was >30° . JH was defined according to the Beighton criteria, using the 5 of 9 cut‐off score . Each assessment included both a rheumatologic and ocular examination, performed by an expert paediatric rheumatologist and a paediatric ophthalmologist, respectively.…”