The relationship between Beighton score and biomechanical risk factors among adolescent, female volleyball players.

OBJECTIVE

To investigate the relationship between Beighton score and biomechanical risk factors, such as knee valgus, in female, adolescent volleyball players.

DESIGN

Cross-sectional study.

SETTING

Biomechanics laboratory.

PARTICIPANTS

25 adolescent, club-level female volleyball athletes (14.5 ± 1.8 years) were tested between September 2021-November 2021.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Participants were asked to perform a double-leg vertical jump (DLVJ), a single-leg squat (SLS), and a single-leg drop landing (SLDL). Peak coronal plane angles during the DLVJ, SLS, and SLDL were computed. Spearman correlations were performed to identify significant relationships between Beighton score and biomechanical variables.

RESULTS

Peak knee valgus was found to be moderately correlated to Beighton score during the DLVJ-Land (r = 0.487, p = 0.014), SLDL (r = 0.478, p = 0.016), and SLS (r = 0.439, p = 0.028) tasks.

CONCLUSIONS

Overall, adolescent volleyball players with higher Beighton scores tended to exhibit a greater peak knee valgus, suggesting that such athletes could benefit from a targeted neuromuscular training or injury prevention program.