ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES:
In volleyball, the high demand for shoulder sports makes it susceptible to injuries due to the repetition of sporting gestures. The presence of pain in the shoulder can lead to the disability to perform movements correctly, resulting in reduced sports performance. The study aimed to evaluate and correlate the presence of pain and functional disability of the upper extremity in volleyball athletes.
METHODS:
Cross-sectional descriptive study, developed with 30 female volleyball athletes. Functional disability was assessed using the Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder, and Hand Questionnaire (DASH) and pain intensity using the Visual Numeric Scale (VNS). The study was conducted in an online format. The IBM SPSS 21.0 statistical package for Windows was used, where descriptive measures, Wilcoxon, and Spearman correlation tests were performed, adopting p≤0.05.
RESULTS:
Nineteen athletes reported mild to moderate pain to perform daily activities, and 21 athletes reported pain to perform sporting gestures, with pain being significantly more intense in the dominant shoulder in the spike movement (p<0.001), serve (p<0.001), and blocking (p=0.03). Athletes did not present functional limitations in the DASH, but the opposite, outside hitter, and middle blocker, presented mild limitations in the DASH sport. There was a strong correlation between DASH and day-to-day pain (rs=0.79; p<0.001) and a moderate correlation between sports DASH and pain in the dominant shoulder in the spike (rs=0.67; p<0.001) and in the serve (rs=0.60; p<0.001) movements.
CONCLUSION:
Evaluated athletes presented shoulder pain, higher functional disability to performer the sports activity, and pain and functional disability were positively correlated
HIGHLIGHTS
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Overhead movements such as serve and spike contribute to shoulder pain in volleyball players;
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The functional disability of the upper limbs is positively correlated with the intensity of pain to perform daily activities and sports;
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The kinetic-functional diagnosis is important to minimize the risk of injury, rehabilitate injured athletes and provide an adequate return of the athlete to sports practice.