Investigation of the accuracy of functional testing on predicting the severity of lower limb injuries of handball athletes

Purpose: The number of damages and severity of the injury has increased in recent years in handball. Recent studies have reported that functional testing before the season is associated with future injuries of athletes. However, the findings related to these studies are inconsistent. The current study aims to examine the accuracy of functional testing to predict the amount and severity of lower limb injuries of handball athletes in Tehran.  Method: 80 people of handball players (men) of league clubs of Tehran in the age range of 20-30 years were purposefully selected. Next, functional testing, including the Y balance, single-leg jump, and Functional Movement Screen (FMS) was taken from them. The hours of exercise and competition for teams, along with the number of players' injuries, were recorded during the half-season of competitions. To predict the severity and incidence rate of the injury, the univariate curve estimation regression test was used. Results: The results of this test showed that among functional testing, only single-leg jump (p= 0.035) could predict the severity of the injury incidence, and none of the tests the incidence rate of the injury (p> 0.05). Conclusions: It can be said that only single-leg jump can predict the severity of weak injuries (less than 10 lost days), and screening tests of functional activities have a very limited application to identify the handball athletes at risk of the injury.

Investigation of the accuracy of functional testing on predicting the severity of lower limb injuries of handball athletes Keywords:

Screening Tests , Functional Testing , Handball Injuries