Trauma Exposure and Functional Movement Characteristics of Male Tactical Athletes, 2020, Taylor et al

[Andy]

This looks to be all kinds of gobbledygook.

Context Tactical athletes commonly experience high levels of physical stress, which may increase their risk of musculoskeletal injury. It is critical to understand psychological predictors of functional movement (FM), which may help prevent musculoskeletal injury in this population.

Objective To determine the associations of combat and trauma exposure with FM characteristics of male tactical athletes. Secondary objectives were to explore confounding influences of age and physical injury history as well as the mediating role of bodily pain.

Design Cross-sectional study.

Setting Research laboratory.

Patients or Other Participants Eighty-two healthy, male, active-duty US Navy Explosive Ordnance Disposal personnel (age = 34.0 ± 6.7 years).

Main Outcome Measure(s) Participants completed measures of combat exposure, trauma exposure, physical injury history, and bodily pain. We assessed FM characteristics (ie, Functional Movement Screen [FMS], Y-Balance Test), from which we derived a composite functional status (CFS) measure. Hypotheses were tested using correlational and multiple regression (causal-steps) models.

Results In unadjusted models, trauma exposure was inversely associated with the FMS (P = .005) and CFS (P = .009) scores. In adjusted models, these relationships were robust to the confounding influences of age and physical injury history. Trauma exposure and bodily pain were substantive, independent predictors of FMS and CFS in causal-steps models (all P values < .05), implying additive rather than mediated effects (R2adj = 0.18–0.20). Combat exposure did not predict FM characteristics.

Conclusions To our knowledge, this is the first evidence of the influence of trauma exposure on the FM characteristics of male tactical athletes, independent of age, physical injury, and bodily pain. This program of research may help to advance the prevention and treatment of musculoskeletal injuries in the tactical environment.

PDF, open access, https://natajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.4085/1062-6050-111-19

 

[rvallee]

It's frankly advanced gobbledygook. The academic bubble in a nutshell, completely detached from reality.

Eighty-two healthy, male

independent of age, physical injury, and bodily pain

Trauma exposure and bodily pain were substantive, independent predictors

They're supposed to be healthy but they have significant bodily pain so I guess pain is not a health factor? Yes, you're in pain, but no, it's not health-related? Problem solved, I guess?

Secondary objectives were to explore confounding influences of age and physical injury history as well as the mediating role of bodily pain

But if there's a significant history of physical injury and bodily pain that doesn't scream completely healthy. Soldiers get injured so much they barely pay attention to how and when that happens so it's not as if they remember every time they got injured or can pinpoint exactly what they did to cause pain, it's not always apparent.

It shows that everything that isn't about trauma was just an afterthought with not much effort. The obsession with trauma in medicine is seriously becoming farcical, especially as it's so easy to falsify but they always make sure never to be in a position to falsify their assumptions.

This stats-twiddling with spreadsheets thing is basically the corporate world equivalent of powerpoint. They're just turning knobs until their conclusion pops out.