Hypermobility in Adolescent Athletes: Pain, Functional Ability, Quality of Life, and Musculoskeletal Injuries

Abstract

U t STUDY DESIGN:Cross-sectional. U t BACKGROUND:Generalized joint hypermobility (GJH) may increase pain and likelihood of injuries and also decrease function and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in elite-level adolescent athletes. U t OBJECTIVE:To assess the prevalence of GJH in elite-level adolescent athletes, and to study the association of GJH with pain, function, HRQoL, and musculoskeletal injuries. U t METHODS:A total of 132 elite-level adolescent athletes (36 adolescent boys, 96 adolescent girls; mean ± SD age, 14.0 ± 0.9 years), including ballet dancers (n = 22), TeamGym gymnasts (n = 57), and team handball players (n = 53), participated in the study. Generalized joint hypermobility was classified by Beighton score as GJH4 (4/9 or greater), GJH5 (5/9 or greater), and GJH6 (6/9 or greater). Function of the lower extremity, musculoskeletal injuries, and HRQoL were assessed with self-reported questionnaires, and part of physical performance was assessed by 4 postural-sway tests and 2 single-legged hop-for-distance tests. U t RESULTS:Overall prevalence rates for GJH4, GJH5, and GJH6 were 27.3%, 15.9%, and 6.8%,

Generalized joint hypermobility and perceived harmfulness in healthy adolescents; impact on muscle strength, motor performance and physical activity level

“…However, the findings of the current study were consistent with results of earlier studies in adolescents and adults with asymptomatic GJH compared to non-hypermobile controls (Clinch et al, 2011;Jensen et al, 2013;Junge et al, 2015;Mebes et al, 2008). In addition, a recent study also showed that no differences in physical functioning, measured as lower extremity function and motor performance, occurred between adolescent athletes with asymptomatic GJH and non-hypermobile adolescent athletes (Schmidt et al, 2017). A possible explanation between the different outcomes of PAL could be that the current study and Clinch et al (2011) used accelerometry as objective measurement, whereas Scheper et al (2014a) used a subjective measure.…”

Generalised joint hypermobility increases ACL injury risk and is associated with inferior outcome after ACL reconstruction: a systematic review

“…Because of this, we hypothesised that part of the reason for the increased risk of ACL injury, seen in females, could be attributed to hypermobility. However, in females, other possible risk factors, such as reduced neuromuscular control,47–50 a narrow femoral notch4 51 or hormonal factors, could be of greater significance 52…”

Disturbances of postural sway components in cannabis users

“…However, these sway variables are not commonly used to assess sway and appear to have been used in only one previous study by this same group (Thewlis et al, 2014). By contrast, COP path length is routinely used to assess postural sway, with numerous published studies employing this measure to quantify sway in just the last calendar year (Clark et al, 2017;Howard et al, 2017;Kalron 2017;Koyama and Yamauchi 2017;Lee and Brown 2017;Ludwig 2017;Pavao et al, 2017;Schmidt et al, 2017;Scholes et al, 2017).…”