ArticleSports health
Biopsychosocial Factors Associated With Return to Preinjury Sport After ACL Injury Treated Without Reconstruction: NACOX Cohort Study 12-Month Follow-up.
Article in Sports health. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 22 citations in OpenAlex.
- The utility of psychological readiness scales in predicting return to sport: a systematic review.BMC psychology · 2025Pooled it
- Patient-Reported Knee Function and Return-to-Sport Rates After Nonsurgical and Surgical Treatment of an Acute Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injury: Results From the NACOX Prospective Cohort Study.The American journal of sports medicine · 2026Article
- From Slump to Comeback: Psychological Determinants of Performance Decline, Burnout, and Recovery in Competitive Athletes-A Systematic Review.Sports (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Isokinetic Strength Recovery and Fear of Re-Injury After ACL Reconstruction in Male Soccer Players: A Retrospective Cohort Study.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Article
- International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) consensus statement on return-to-performance in competitive alpine and freestyle skiers and snowboarders.BMJ open sport & exercise medicine · 2026Article
- Current concepts and future perspective of muscle function tests to inform return to sport decision-making after ACLR: A narrative review.Journal of experimental orthopaedics · 2026Review
- Identification of characteristics of patients who choose operative versus non-operative management after ACL injury: a latent class analysis.Sports medicine - open · 2025Article
- "Returning to Sport Is Not Just About the Knee": Physiotherapists' Experiences of the Management of Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injury: A Qualitative Study.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Article
- Machine Learning Predictions of Subjective Function, Symptoms, and Psychological Readiness at 12 Months After ACL Reconstruction Based on Physical Performance in the Early Rehabilitation Stage: Retrospective Cohort Study.Orthopaedic journal of sports medicine · 2025Article
- Which patients need anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction after initial treatment with rehabilitation? A scoping review.Knee surgery, sports traumatology, arthroscopy : official journal of the ESSKA · 2025Article
- Biopsychosocial approach to sports injury: a systematic review and exploration of knowledge structure.BMC sports science, medicine & rehabilitation · 2024Article
- From injury to comeback: A systematic review of machine learning models predicting return to sport in athletes.Digital healthArticle
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe limited research on prognosis after nonsurgical management of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury has focused on physical factors. We aimed to assess relationships between key patient-reported outcomes, in line with a biopsychosocial approach, and returning to preinjury sport at 12 months after ACL injury treated without reconstruction. HYPOTHESIS: We hypothesized that biopsychosocial factors would be associated with returning to preinjury sport at 12 months after ACL injury. STUDY
designProspective single cohort study. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level 2.
methodsPatients who had an ACL injury and did not have reconstruction during the first year after injury were recruited from healthcare clinics in Sweden, and followed up at 3, 6, and 12 months after injury. Return to preinjury sport at 12 months was the primary outcome. Explanatory variables were psychological readiness to return to sport, knee-related quality of life, and self-reported knee function. Using generalized estimating equations, we evaluated the relationships between the explanatory variables and the primary outcome at each timepoint.
resultsData were analyzed for 88 participants with a median age of 27 years (15-40 years). Soccer was the most frequently reported preinjury sport (n = 22). Forty participants (46%) had returned to their preinjury sport at 12 months after ACL injury. The odds of returning to preinjury sport at 12 months increased with higher self-reported knee function at 6 months (odds ratio [OR], 1.1; 95% CI, 1.0-1.1), and the odds of being returned to the preinjury sport at 12 months doubled for every 1-point increase (1-10 scale) in psychological readiness to return to sport measured at 12 months (OR, 1.9; 95% CI, 1.2-3.2).
conclusionSuperior self-reported knee function at 6 months and greater psychological readiness to return to sport at 12 months were associated with returning to the preinjury sport 1 year after ACL injury treated without reconstruction. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Consider highlighting the relevance of biopsychosocial factors to returning to preinjury sport after ACL injury when discussing prognosis during shared decision-making.
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