GENERALIZED JOINT HYPERMOBILITY AND ITS RELATIONSHIP TO INJURY PATTERNS AMONG NCAA LACROSSE PLAYERS

Objective: To prospectively observe and compare injury patterns among hypermobile and nonhypermobile NCAA athletes.

Design and Setting: Athletes were screened for generalized joint hypermobility prior to the beginning of the 1995 lacrosse season. Injuries were recorded through the end of the postseason and compared between hypermobiles and nonhypermobiles.

Subjects: Three hundred ten male and female volunteers from 17 lacrosse teams participated in the study.

Measurements: Hypermobility was evaluated using the Carter-Wilkinson-Beighton technique, which uses nine joint measurements to assess global joint mobility. To be considered hypermobile, 5/9 of these measurements must have been positive. Next, certified athletic trainers prospectively recorded injuries, and hours of practice/game participation on a standard form. After the season, all data forms were returned to us for analysis. Significance was set at .05, and Chi-square and independent t-tests were used to compare injuries between groups.

Results: Twenty of 147 men (13.6%) and 54 of 163 women (33.1%) were hypermobile, yielding an overall hypermobility prevalence of 23.8%. One hundred athletes sustained 134 injuries. There were no significant differences in overall injury rate among hypermobiles (2.29/1,000 hours) compared to nonhypermobiles (3.54/1,000 hours, p=.18). Nonhypermobiles suffered contact injuries at a higher rate (1.38/1,000 hours) than hypermobiles (.52/1,000 hours, p=.037). Hypermobiles showed an increased rate of ankle injuries (p < .05). Nonhypermobiles showed a trend toward an increased rate of strains (p = .051). Multiple approaches to analysis of the data revealed no other significant findings.

Conclusions: There was no difference in overall injury rates between hypermobiles and nonhypermobiles in this athletic sample. This is somewhat surprising in light of the existence of significant evidence that hypermobility appears to be a factor in joint complaints among nonathletes. Additional research is needed to clearly determine if a relationship exists between hypermobility and injury rates among athletes.

Keywords: athletic injury surveillance, laxity, injury risk, rheumatology.

1999 Decoster LC, Bernier JN, Lindsay RH, Vailas JC: Generalized joint hypermobility and its relationship to injury patterns among NCAA lacrosse players. J Athletic Training, Volume 34, Number 2, 1999.