Mastering the movement, not the mind: The relationship between quality of movement and kinesiophobia after ACL reconstruction in young athletes.

OBJECTIVES

To assess the relationship between kinesiophobia and quality of movement at return-to-sport (RTS) testing after primary anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR) in youth athletes.

DESIGN

Retrospective case-control.

SETTING

Pediatric Hospital.

PARTICIPANTS

114 participants (77.2 % male; 16.1 ± 2.3 years, 10.3 ± 4.4 months post ACLR).

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Tampa Scale of Kinesiophobia (TSK-11), quantitative and qualitative results of RTS test including triple hop for distance (THD), triple crossover hop for distance (TCHD), and a sidestep cut (SSC).

RESULTS

During the THD, the high kinesiophobia group demonstrated fewer significant valgus faults on the involved limb (p = 0.027) and lower propensities of stiff landing on the uninvolved limb (p = 0.030) compared to the low kinesiophobia group. The high kinesiophobia group showed fewer stiff landing errors on the involved limb during the TCHD (p = 0.031) and fewer total sagittal plane errors on the involved limb during the SSC (p = 0.012). No significant differences in limb symmetry indices were observed.

CONCLUSION

Participants with high kinesiophobia showed fewer quality of movement errors in both the frontal and sagittal plane at RTS testing after ACLR. Despite better movement quality, high fear may be an unresolved problem that still needs to be addressed during rehabilitation after ACLR.