Over the coming months, we will be showcasing first-author papers written by C-ESS HDR students that have been published or accepted for publication during the course of their postgraduate studies. We are proud to contribute to the diversity and quality of the research done within C-ESS!
Full citation
Fox, A.S., Bonacci, J., McLean, S.G., Spittle, M., & Saunders, N. (2014). What is normal? Female lower limb kinematic profiles during athletic tasks used to examine ACL injury risk: A systematic review. Sports Medicine, 44(6), 815–832.
Tell us what your article is about.
This systematic review uses data from previous biomechanical studies to create “normal” or expected ranges for hip and knee kinematic variables during athletic tasks commonly examined in lab environments. The paper focuses on standard athletic tasks – unilateral drop landings, bilateral drop vertical jump-landings, and side-step cutting – as these tasks are commonly used to examine anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury risk factors in the lab.
Why is this work important?
A number of studies have examined lower limb kinematics in laboratory environments with the purpose of identifying “at-risk” athletes or “high-risk” mechanics. At times, increases or decreases in kinematic values are deemed to fit into these categories, when they may simply be representative of how that athletic sub-population or gender performs that task normally. The results from this review provide evidence-based values for identifying anomalies in athletic task performances, or when these task performances could be considered “abnormal”.
How would you like to see your work make an impact in the field?
The values provided in this review can be used as a means to identify, classify, or stratify the level of biomechanical risk for ACL injury when task performances are observed in laboratory environments. Having the ability to identify anomalous or abnormal task performances may allow us to link certain muscular activation strategies or other injury risk factors to these high-risk situations.
Learn more…
Next Monday, Aaron will present the findings from this systematic review at the 9th Australasian Biomechanics Conference (ABC). Aaron is presenting during the poster session on December 1st, from 6:00–7:30PM (poster #14).
If you are not attending the 9th ABC but you’d like to learn more about this and Aaron’s other work in ACL injury risk factors, feel free to get in touch via the following channels:
- Email: asf@deakin.edu.au
- Twitter: @aaron_s_fox
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