Nathan, Joseph Alexander, Davies, Kevin and Swaine, Ian ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3747-1370 (2018) Hypermobility and sports injury. BMJ Open Sport & Exercise Medicine, 4 (1):e000366. ISSN 2055-7647 (Online) (doi:10.1136/bmjsem-2018-000366)

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Abstract

Objective:
To determine whether there is an association between hypermobility and sports injury.

Method:
A quantitative observational approach using a cross sectional survey was adopted. Individuals were identified as hypermobile or not. All participants were asked to complete two questionnaires; one asking demographic information; the other injury specific. Fisher's exact test was used for statistical analysis.

Results:
114 individuals participated in the study. 62 women and 52 men. 26% of participants were hypermobile. There was no significant association between hypermobility and sports injury (p = 0.66). There was a significant increase in joint and ligament sprain amongst the non-hypermobile (NH) group covering all sports (p = 0.03). Joint dislocation was found exclusively amongst hypermobile individuals. Duration of injury in hypermobile individuals was higher than NH. Oral painkillers or anti-inflammatories in the semi-professional group was greater than the general population.

Conclusion:
Hypermobility is relatively common amongst individuals and there is a lot of anecdotal evidence associating it with increased rates of injuries. This project finds that NH individuals are more likely to sustain a ligament or joint sprain in sports. This is due to increased joint laxity and flexibility preventing injury. There were important limitations in this study which will be addressed in further work. These limitations include; assessing for pauci-articular hypermobility, focusing on one sport to investigate its association with sports injury in those that were hypermobile or not and it would also be important to focus on one specific joint, assessing it’s flexibility and association with injury

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2018. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ. This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Injuries, Prevention, Sports & exercise medicine, Sports analysis in different types of sports
Subjects:	Q Science > QP Physiology
Faculty / School / Research Centre / Research Group:	Faculty of Engineering & Science Faculty of Education, Health & Human Sciences > School of Human Sciences (HUM) Faculty of Education, Health & Human Sciences > Institute for Lifecourse Development > Centre for Exercise Activity and Rehabilitation
Related URLs:	Publisher
Last Modified:	22 Nov 2021 11:49
URI:	http://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/21883

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