Athletic Training and Sports Health Care
July/August 2014 – Volume 6 · Issue 4: 161-169
DOI: 10.3928/19425864-20140717-01
Functional movement insufficiencies may place an individual at increased risk of injury. The Functional Movement Screen (FMS) is used to identify movement deviations. Limited research has been conducted to verify the predictive value of the FMS test to identify injury risk. Our purpose was to investigate the predictive usefulness of the FMS. FMS scores of 144 National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I football athletes were obtained during preseason. Participants were tracked prospectively over the course of a single season and all sport-related injuries were evaluated, documented, and tracked by an athletic trainer. A cutoff score was determined using a receiver operator characteristic curve. A maximized odds ratio of 1.425 (95% confidence interval: 0.6–3.2) and a positive likelihood ratio of 1.154 were found for individuals that scored a 17 or below on the FMS. Our results are contrary to previous research and indicate that the FMS is not useful for predicting musculoskeletal injury risk. [Athletic Training & Sports Health Care. 2014;6(4):161–169.]
Mr Wiese is from East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina; Mr Boone is from the University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware; Dr Mattacola and Dr Uhl are from Athletic Training, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky; and Dr McKeon is from Ithaca College, Ithaca, New York.
The authors have disclosed no potential conflicts of interest, financial or otherwise.
Address correspondence to Brian William Wiese, MS, ATC, LAT, East Carolina University, 116-G Ward Sports Medicine Building, Greenville, NC 27858; e-mail: wieseb@ecu.edu.
Received: September 30, 2013
Accepted: May 14, 2014