Date Presented

Spring 4-1-2007

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science

First Advisor

Tim Laurent

Second Advisor

Nancy Cowden

Third Advisor

Debbie Bradney

Abstract

Shoulder injuries are very common in sports such as baseball, football, and tennis due to high impact and stress placed on the shoulder joint. Due to the greater chance of shoulder injuries in these types of sports, it is imperative for shoulder injury assessments to be accurate in order to ensure that the athlete does not participate with an injured shoulder or lose participation time due to an incorrect assessment. In order to assess the validity of the Apprehension, Relocation, and Surprise test for shoulder instability, student athletes with no known shoulder injuries were evaluated. Tests were conducted under the supervision of a professional athletic trainer to ensure correct technique. The effectiveness of each specific shoulder injury assessment technique was determined by analyzing the occurrence of false positive results for each assessment test. False positives occur when an athlete tests positive for an injury during an assessment even though there is no injury present. A sensitivity score was given to each examination technique. The results showed an 87.5% specificity for apprehension and relocation tests and a 93.8% specificity for the surprise test. These results were above the 85% specificity which was found throughout previous literature leading to the conclusion that the results were not significant and that the assessment techniques did not have a strong occurrence of false positives.

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