AI Insight
This study examined 115 professional athletes after ACL reconstruction and 153 healthy matched controls, finding that athletes post-surgery had significantly lower activity levels despite showing similar levels of kinesiophobia (fear of movement) and sports injury-related anxiety compared to healthy athletes. While kinesiophobia and injury anxiety were positively correlated with each other in both groups, neither psychological factor independently predicted activity levels when accounting for demographic and injury-related variables such as age, time since surgery, and return-to-sport timing.
Why it matters
The findings challenge assumptions about psychological barriers preventing athletes from returning to pre-injury activity levels after ACL reconstruction. This suggests that rehabilitation programs may need to focus less on addressing fear of movement and more on other physical or contextual factors that influence post-surgical performance in professional athletes.
Understand the Science
IntroductionThis study aimed to examine the associations between anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACL-R) status, activity level, kinesiophobia, and sports injury-related anxiety in professional athletes.MethodsThis cross-sectional observational study included 115 athletes post-ACL-R and 153 age- and sex-matched healthy athletes. All participants completed the Tegner Activity Scale, Sports Injury Anxiety Scale, and Tampa Scale of Kinesiophobia–Short Version.ResultsAthletes in the ACL-R group demonstrated significantly lower activity levels compared with controls (6.50 ± 2.63 vs. 8.12 ± 2.30, p < 0.001). No significant between-group differences were observed in sports injury-related anxiety (53.94 ± 13.08 vs. 52.77 ± 12.67, p = 0.643) or kinesiophobia (18.13 ± 3.01 vs. 18.05 ± 2.82, p = 0.990). Kinesiophobia and sports injury-related anxiety were significantly positively correlated in both the ACL-R group (r = 0.285, p = 0.002) and the control group (r = 0.365, p < 0.001). Tegner activity level was not significantly correlated with psychological variables in either group. In the ACL-R group, age, surgery year, and return-to-sport time were significant predictors of activity level, whereas sex, injury year, and psychological variables were not significant predictors.ConclusionProfessional athletes following ACL-R demonstrated lower activity levels than healthy controls, while kinesiophobia and sports injury-related anxiety were comparable between groups. Psychological variables were not independently associated with activity level after adjustment for demographic and injury-related factors.