The effect of hypermobility on the incidence of injury in professional football: A multi site cohort study.
BACKGROUND A recent study demonstrated joint hypermobility increased the incidence of injury in an elite football team utilising a univariate statistical model. OBJECTIVES To compare injury incidence between hypermobile and non hypermobile elite football players incorporating a multi site design and multivariate inferential statistics. METHODS 80 players comprising 3 English Championship football teams were followed prospectively during the 2012 2013 season. Joint hypermobility was assessed according to the 9 point Beighton Criteria at the start of the study period. A cut off score of =4 categorised a participant as hypermobile. Player exposure and time loss injuries were recorded throughout. RESULTS Mean standard deviation incidence of injuries was 9.2 10.8 injuries/1000 h. The prevalence of hypermobility was 8.8% Hypermobiles had a tendency for higher injury incidence (mean [95% confidence interval] difference, 5.2 [0.9 2.7] injuries/1000 h; p 0.06) Cox regression analyses found training exposure to be highly significant in terms of injury risk (p 0.001) for all participants. Non hypermobiles had a lower injury risk (p 0.11) according to the Cox model, which is suggestive but not conclusive that hypermobility predisposes injury risk. CONCLUSIONS Hypermobility showed a trend towards increased risk of injury. Training exposure is a significant injury risk factor in elite football.
Physical therapy in sport official journal of the Association of Chartered Physiotherapists in Sports Medicine