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D.V. Kunchana Ravihara1, J.A. Ashani Irosha1, K.M.K.G. Sudeera Darshana1, H.M. Maheshika Prabodhanie1, G. Amara Damayanthi Perera1
1General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University, Faculty of Allied Health Sciences, Department of Physiotherapy, Colombo, Sri Lanka
Background: Hamstring muscle group is identified as more prone to get tighten than other muscles in the body. Tightness of the hamstring muscle group leads to severe sports injuries and participation restrictions. Therefore, it’s important to evaluate the prevalence of hamstring tightness among athletes. Many studies have been done in other counties to find out the prevalence of hamstring tightness among various populations. But only a few has been done for athletes. In Sri Lanka, only one study is evident which has targeted university level athletes. Up to date the prevalence of hamstring tightness among national level athletes has not been evaluated in other counties or in Sri Lanka.
Purpose: To find out the prevalence of hamstring tightness among national level athletes in Sri Lanka using the Passive Strait Leg Raise Test (PSLRT) which is the criterion measure of hamstring flexibility.
Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted at the Physiotherapy rehabilitation center of Ministry of sports in Sri Lanka, among 94 national level athletes including 43 males and 51 females, aged 20-29 (mean 24.5) years. We selected athletes from various sports and there were 48 athletes from contact type sports (Basketball, Netball, Volleyball, Hokey, Kabaddi) and 46 from non-contact type sports (Table Tennis, Badminton, Rowing, Athletics, Swimming). An interviewer administered information sheet was used to collect demographic data. The Hamstring flexibility was tested using the PSLRT. If the PSLRT angle was less than 80 degrees the hamstring musculature was considered as tight, since 80 degrees is considered as the cut off value of the hamstring flexibility. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the prevalence, the independent sampling t was used to identify gender wise differences and the paired t test was used to detect the difference among left and right sides. Also, P value less than 0.05 was considered as statistically significant.
Results: Prevalence of hamstring tightness among national level athletes is 35.11% (n=33). Also, 39.58% (n=19) athletes from the contact sports group and 30.43% (n=14) athletes from the non-contact sports group had hamstring tightness. No any significant difference between the right and left sides of both male (p = 0.08) and female (p = 0.32) athletes were found. In our study, 48.83% (n=21) male athletes and 23.53% (n=12) female athletes were found to have hamstring tightness.
Conclusion(s): A low percentage of national level athletes have got hamstring tightness and it is higher among males than females. The contact sport group showed a higher percentage than the non-contact group. There are no differences of the hamstring tightness between the right and the left sides of both males and females.
Implications: We highly recommend to test hamstring muscle tightness of the national level athletes or of a similar population and to administer hamstring stretching exercises to increase the flexibility of the hamstring musculature as needed.
Funding, acknowledgements: The research is not funded by any source.
Keywords: Prevalence, Hamstring muscle tightness, National level athletes
Topic: Sport & sports injuries
Did this work require ethics approval? Yes
Institution: General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University, Sri lanaka
Committee: Ethics Review Committee, Faculty of Medicine
Ethics number: RP/S/2018/22
All authors, affiliations and abstracts have been published as submitted.
