Studies of lower limb isokinetic strength and proprioception in young football players

Fayaz, Saeed (2009) Studies of lower limb isokinetic strength and proprioception in young football players. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

More young people are participating in organised sport, due to growing physical activity promotion programmes. This may increase the risk of injury in adolescents. The rate of injury in football, in particular at a professional level has increased. There is a lack of literature in Scottish youth football in different aspects of sports injuries. There is a need in sports medicine for a static and dynamic standing balance and proprioception tests to quantify balance ability in adolescents. Although there are many studies focussing on the risk of falls in the elderly there are few studies of balance and measures of proprioception and muscle strength in young and adolescent sports participants.
Young football players were selected as the target population of these studies, because of the growing number of young participants in this popular sport, as well as the vulnerability of this group to sports injury during their growth.
Knee injuries commonly occur during sports activity. The consequences of ACL injury, in particular, are more serious and costly compared to the injuries of other joints. Football players suffer from an increased of knee injuries. In various stages of rehabilitation of the injured athlete after ACL injury a sensitive method of evaluation is required to identify neuromuscular impairment.

This thesis reflects the results of four studies on different aspects of sports injury. The first study, the retrospective epidemiology section, looked at the prevalence of sports injury in youth football players, using a self administered questionnaire as the data collection instrument. The focus of the research was football related injuries, which happened during the season 2002-2003. The subjects of this study were 221 young Scottish football players aged between 12 and 19 years old.

The second or reproducibility study was designed to examine whether the results from one of the main equipment tools utilised in this study were reproducible and consistent. This part of the study aimed to determine the test-retest reliability of one tester dynamic unipedal and bipedal balance in two groups of youth football players and young active adults. A group of healthy active adults (over 19 years old) participated in the first part and a group of younger adults (under 19 years old) participated in the second part of the reproducibility study.

The extension to the second study was designed to compare balance and strength in professional and non-professional players and non-football players.

• Item Type: Thesis (PhD)
• Qualification Level: Doctoral
• Subjects: R Medicine > R Medicine (General)
• Colleges/Schools: College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Cardiovascular & Metabolic Health
• Supervisor's Name: Hillis, Prof. William S.
• Date of Award: 2009
• Depositing User: Mrs Marie Cairney
• Unique ID: glathesis:2009-2364
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 03 Feb 2011
• Last Modified: 10 Dec 2012 13:54
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/2364