Detecting Risk of Lower Limb Musculoskeletal Injuries Using Wearable Sensors in High-activity Military Populations — ACSM 2023

Goss D, Ignacio G, Helton M, Gonnella M, Reilly N, Haltiwanger, Yang K, Gailey

Abstract submitted to American College of Sports Medicine Annual Meeting & World Congresses 2023

Musculoskeletal injuries (MSI) affect approximately 800,000 service members and 25 million days of limited duty annually. There is a need for quick screening assessments that can classify and predict the risk of lower extremity (LE) MSI prior to activity. An Injury Risk Index (IRI) could facilitate improved decision-making and reduce the negative impact associated with selected MSI. The purpose of this study is to determine the frequency and distribution of Soldiers’ risk of MSI injury after performing sensors-based objective LE tests for static and dynamic stability. As of December 2022, 263 (92% male, 8% female) United States Army Soldiers were recruited, and provided demographic and previous joint-specific injury history information. Soldiers donned a sleeve with two inertial measurement unit sensors over each knee. They performed single limb stance (SLS) tests to obtain Region of Limb Stability (ROLS) values, which measures static LE stability. A four-meter sidestep test (FmSST) was used to obtain the Transitional Angular Displacement of Segments (TADS) values as a metric of dynamic joint stability. The ROLS and TADS symmetry values between LEs is calculated for both tests and the values are used to determine IRI category as low, moderate, or high risk for injury. [RN1] Total assessment time was < 15 minutes per Soldier. Descriptive statistics and frequency distributions were used to characterize the study population.