Association between psychological readiness to return to sport and self-reported function in adolescents after shoulder stabilization

Objectives

To examine differences in psychological readiness and self-reported function based on pre-operative risk factors at time of return to sport (RTS) after adolescent shoulder stabilization. Our secondary purpose was to assess the relationship between pre-operative shoulder instability history and psychological readiness at time of RTS testing.

Design

Multi center retrospective cross-sectional study.

Setting

Pediatric hospital.

Participants

52 participants (65 % male; 16.5 ± 1.3 years old; 5.9 ± 1.0 months post-surgery).

Main outcome measures

Shoulder Instability Return to Sport after Injury scale (SI-RSI), Quick-Disabilities of Arm, Shoulder, Hand (QuickDASH), number of pre-operative instability episodes.

Results

Median SI-RSI score was 75.4 IQR (62.5–88.3) at time of RTS testing. Females reported significantly lower SI-RSI scores compared to males (65.0, IQR: 50.9–79.2 vs 77.9, IQR: 65.7–90.1; p = 0.034). There were no significant differences in SI-RSI scores in patients with greater than 3 instability events compared to patients with 1 or 2 instability events (p = 0.866). SI-RSI and QuickDASH scores displayed a moderate negative correlation (r = −0.51, p = 0.001).

Conclusion

Males and females after shoulder stabilization surgery report differences in psychological readiness at time of RTS. Pre-operative instability history was not related to SI-RSI scores at time of RTS testing, but SI-RSI scores are related to subjective function.