Psychosocial aspects of sports injuries are on the agenda: but what can be measured and assessed during rehabilitation and return to sport?

Abstract

The impact and consequences of sports-related injuries involve a complex interplay between biological, psychological and social factors. Psychological factors are important because anxiety, fear of reinjury, kinesiophobia, optimism, self-motivation and perceived social support are linked with sports injury rehabilitation and return-to-sport outcomes.1–3 Wiese-Bjornstal et al. 4 proposed an integrated model to illustrate how psychosocial reactions among injured athletes are comprised of cognitive components (ie, a sense of loss, pressure, stress, pain, optimism and pessimism), affective components (ie, fear of movement and reinjury, anxiety, anger and frustration) and behavioural components (ie, risky behaviour, social connection and coping). While this model has gained recognition worldwide, more specific suggestions on how these psychosocial factors can be measured and assessed are lacking.3 4 The aim of this editorial is to review our existing tools for the measurement and evaluation of psychological factors during the sports injury rehabilitation and return-to-sport process. High-quality psychological care is important to all injured athletes, and measuring psychosocial factors can provide valuable insights and help monitor their ‘injury experience’. This is, however, often overlooked in standard clinical evaluations, which tend to focus primarily on tissue damage and physical function. Psychosocial measurement instruments assessing psychosocial aspects should provide valuable context-specific insights into an athlete’s psychosocial state and well-being. …