Measurement of Fear of Movement/Re-injury: Before and After Functional Tests in Anterior Cruciate Ligament Deficient Patients

One of the most common sport injuries is Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) rupture. Despite high amounts of expentiduture on ACL reconstruction, the rate of return to Pre-Injury Level (RTP) is low. One of the hindrances to RTP is fear of movement/re-injury (kinesiophobia) in the patients. The purpose of the present study was to measure kinesiophobia levels before and after doing functional tests in ACL deficient (ACLD) patients and to compare it with those of the healthy participants.
A cross-sectional research was carried out on 16 ACLD patients with injury during the past 3 months to 2 years who had taken physical therapy treatment and 16 healthy participants. Cross over hop, six-meter timed hop score indexes, and kinesiophobia scores were compiled. Patients (n=16) were randomly divided into two groups: one group (n=8) took the Tampa Scale of Kinesiophobia (TSK-17) questionnaire before functional tests (group one) and the other (n=8) took and filled it after functional tests (group two). TSK-17 was used to measure kinesiophobia. An analysis of variance was run to compare TSK-17 and other clinical measures between groups.
Comparison of kinesiophobia level between groups one and two showed a significant difference (p=0/004). However, no statistically significant difference was found between group control and group two. Scores of functional tests between the three groups revealed no significant differences either. In addition, no significant difference was found between activity level and injury time past between the two groups of patients.
It can be cocluded that doing functional tests by ACLD patients could be effective to decrease kinesiophobia as an important hinderance to return to pre-injury level. It seems that this reduction is the result of patient’s more recognition of her/his abilities and functional status.