Functional Movement Screen Score Change and Injury Occurrence in Collegiate Female Athletes Across Two Seasons

Abstract

Athletes with poor Functional Movement Screen (FMS) scores have increased injury risk, but it is unknown if injury occurrence is associated with a change in functional movement across seasons in female collegiate athletes. Injury and changes in FMS scores may be related and could impact testing frequency. PURPOSE: To determine if injury occurrence is associated with a change in FMS total score in Division I female athletes across two seasons. METHODS: FMS scores for 28 female athletes (17 soccer, 11 basketball) were obtained by trained raters prior to the start of two consecutive fall semesters (S1 and S2). FMS change score was calculated as the difference in FMS total scores between the two seasons (S2 - S1). Injuries were tracked during S1 and S2 by the teams’ athletic training staff. The injured group missed ≥1 day of full sport participation due to athletic-related injury. The uninjured group did not miss any time. Point-biserial correlations were used to determine the relationship between FMS change score and injured or uninjured groups in each year (α=0.05). T-tests were used to determine if injured and uninjured groups differed in FMS change score (α=0.05). RESULTS: FMS total scores for S1 were injured 15.4±2.7 and uninjured 16.6±1.9; for S2 injured 16.4±2.7 and uninjured 16.5±1.7. Injury occurred for 11/28 (39%) participants in S1 and 16/28 (57%) participants in S2. A significant, but moderate relationship existed between FMS change scores and injury occurrence in S1 (rpb=0.40, rpb2=.16, p =0.04, Cohen d=.86) and S2 (rpb=0.42, rpb2=.18 p=0.03, Cohen d=.92). The FMS change score for the injured group was significantly higher than the uninjured group in S1 (1.7±1.6 vs 0.5±1.0, p=.04) and S2 (2.0±1.6 vs 0.8±1.3, p=.03). CONCLUSIONS: A moderate relationship was observed between FMS change score and injury occurrence for both semesters. While the amount of variation explained was <20%, the injured group demonstrated less stable FMS total scores over two seasons than the uninjured group. It is unclear if a change in functional movement leads to injury or if injury leads to a change in functional movement. Knowing a moderate relationship exists between FMS change scores and injury, repeated FMS testing may be necessary to identify changes in test performance after injury.