Effect of Previous Injury on Functional Movement Screening Outcomes

Abstract

To improve player safety, medical professionals use questionnaires, pre-participation physicals, screening tests, biomechanical analyses, and strength testing to describe characteristics of high risk athletes. The seven-test Functional Movement Screening (FMS) is widely used in current practice, and research efforts have demonstrated the efficacy of the FMS to predict future injury. However, the effect of previous injury on FMS scores has not been defined. Because previous injury is a significant predictor of subsequent injury, an understanding of the effects of previous injury on total FMS score is critical to assess the efficacy of the screening tool to predict future injury. PURPOSE: Determine the efficacy of the FMS evaluation to assess prior musculoskeletal injury. METHODS: From 2012-2015, 58 incoming football athletes completed the FMS and a medical history questionnaire. Trained sports medicine researchers performed the screens and distributed questionnaires. Descriptive statistics were calculated to assess the effectiveness of total FMS results to predict previous injury. The previously established ≤ 14 score cut-off was utilized to establish the two groups’ at-risk levels. The established cut-off was reported to indicate football players at-risk for serious injury defined as out of physical participation for > 2 weeks. RESULTS: 46 athletes reported a prior musculoskeletal injury compared to 12 that denied prior injury. The group of 46 athletes was equally split on FMS scores with 23 athletes that recorded a score of ≤ 14 and 23 athletes that recorded a score > 14. The group that denied previous injury (N=12) was also evenly split with 6 athletes that recorded of score of ≤ 14 and 6 with a score > 14. The FMS with a cut-off score of 14 recorded a sensitivity and specificity of 0.500. The positive predictive value was 0.793 with a negative predictive value of 0.207. CONCLUSIONS: Prior history of musculoskeletal injury as reported on the incoming medical questionnaire did not affect total score on the FMS with specificity or sensitivity. Future studies should evaluate the effects of previous injury on other clinical screening tools. In addition, better screening tools could be developed that assess the incidence of previous injury and risk of future injury.