TY - JOUR
T1 - Do Australian Football players have sensitive groins? Players with current groin pain exhibit mechanical hyperalgesia of the adductor tendon
AU - Drew, Michael K.
AU - Lovell, Gregory
AU - Palsson, Thorvaldur S.
AU - Chiarelli, Pauline E.
AU - Osmotherly, Peter G.
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors of this article would like acknowledge and thank the staff at the Australian football clubs for their assistance throughout the study and the athletes who participated. This study received financial support by the University of Newcastle and the Australian Institute of Sport.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 Sports Medicine Australia
PY - 2016/10/1
Y1 - 2016/10/1
N2 - Objectives This is the first study to evaluate the mechanical sensitivity, clinical classifications and prevalence of groin pain in Australian football players. Design Case-control. Methods Professional (n = 66) and semi-professional (n = 9) Australian football players with and without current or previous groin injuries were recruited. Diagnoses were mapped to the Doha Agreement taxonomy. Point and career prevalence of groin pain was calculated. Pressure pain thresholds (PPTs) were assessed at regional and distant sites using handheld pressure algometry across four sites bilaterally (adductor longus tendon, pubic bone, rectus femoris, tibialis anterior muscle). To assess the relationship between current groin pain and fixed effects of hyperalgesia of each site and a history of groin pain, a mixed-effect logistic regression model was utilised. Receiver Operator Characteristic (ROC) curve were determined for the model. Results Point prevalence of groin pain in the preseason was 21.9% with a career prevalence of 44.8%. Adductor-related groin pain was the most prevalent classification in the pre-season period. Hyperalgesia was observed in the adductor longus tendon site in athletes with current groin pain (OR = 16.27, 95% CI 1.86 to 142.02). The ROC area under the curve of the regression model was fair (AUC = 0.76, 95% CI 0.54 to 0.83). Conclusions Prevalence data indicates that groin pain is a larger issue than published incidence rates imply. Adductor-related groin pain is the most common diagnosis in pre-season in this population. This study has shown that hyperalgesia exists in Australian football players experiencing groin pain indicating the value of assessing mechanical pain sensitivity as a component of the clinical assessment.
AB - Objectives This is the first study to evaluate the mechanical sensitivity, clinical classifications and prevalence of groin pain in Australian football players. Design Case-control. Methods Professional (n = 66) and semi-professional (n = 9) Australian football players with and without current or previous groin injuries were recruited. Diagnoses were mapped to the Doha Agreement taxonomy. Point and career prevalence of groin pain was calculated. Pressure pain thresholds (PPTs) were assessed at regional and distant sites using handheld pressure algometry across four sites bilaterally (adductor longus tendon, pubic bone, rectus femoris, tibialis anterior muscle). To assess the relationship between current groin pain and fixed effects of hyperalgesia of each site and a history of groin pain, a mixed-effect logistic regression model was utilised. Receiver Operator Characteristic (ROC) curve were determined for the model. Results Point prevalence of groin pain in the preseason was 21.9% with a career prevalence of 44.8%. Adductor-related groin pain was the most prevalent classification in the pre-season period. Hyperalgesia was observed in the adductor longus tendon site in athletes with current groin pain (OR = 16.27, 95% CI 1.86 to 142.02). The ROC area under the curve of the regression model was fair (AUC = 0.76, 95% CI 0.54 to 0.83). Conclusions Prevalence data indicates that groin pain is a larger issue than published incidence rates imply. Adductor-related groin pain is the most common diagnosis in pre-season in this population. This study has shown that hyperalgesia exists in Australian football players experiencing groin pain indicating the value of assessing mechanical pain sensitivity as a component of the clinical assessment.
KW - Athlete
KW - Australian football
KW - Groin
KW - Hyperalgesia
KW - Mechanical sensitivity
KW - Pressure pain threshold
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84954306614&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jsams.2015.12.516
DO - 10.1016/j.jsams.2015.12.516
M3 - Article
C2 - 26794720
AN - SCOPUS:84954306614
SN - 1440-2440
VL - 19
SP - 784
EP - 788
JO - Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport
JF - Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport
IS - 10
ER -