Reliability of clinician scoring of the functional movement screen to assess movement patterns

Abstract

Clinical Scenario: Injuries are inevitable in the physically active population. As a part of preventive medicine, health care professionals often seek clinical tools that can be used in real time to identify factors that may predispose individuals to these injuries. The Functional Movement Screen (FMS), a clinical tool consisting of 7 individual tasks, has been reported as useful in identifying individuals in various populations that may be susceptible to musculoskeletal injuries. If factors that may predispose physically active individuals to injury could be identified before participation, clinicians may be able to develop a training plan based on FMS scores, which could potentially decrease the likelihood of injury and overall time missed from physical activities. However, in order for a screening tool to be used clinically, it must demonstrate acceptable reliability. Focused Clinical Question: Are clinicians reliable at scoring the FMS, in real time, to assess movement patterns of physically active individuals?