Stress Injury Proneness: A Prospective Study During a Physical Training Program

Abstract

A sample of 108 army conscripts answered two personality questionnaires and performed a series of motor ability and mental ability tests at the beginning of their military service. Occurrence of stress injuries was followed for a twelve-week period after the tests. The period included programmed physical training similar for all the subjects. On average, the subjects who experienced a stress fracture during the follow-up were tall and they also turned out to have been inactive in sports. The average personality profile in the stress fracture group showed low scores in achievement, dominance and exhibition traits. In addition to knowing the risk of a sudden increase in training intensity in stress injury development, height and the above mentioned personality factors should be known in order to be able to recognize a high risk patient in optimal stress injury prophylaxis, e. g. when planning training programs.

Key words

Stress fracture - injury - height - personality