Can a pre-participation test of movement quality predict injury in sport and exercise? Systematic review of reliability and validity for the 'Functional Movement Screen'

Abstract

Sport and exercise is critical for healthy communities, but participation is inevitably associated with exposure to risk of musculoskeletal injury. Loss of participation due to injury not only threatens the health benefit of physical activity, but also impedes competitive success. Injuries are also associated with substantial economic cost and personal suffering. Poor movement quality is a factor theorised to increase risk of injury. The ‘Functional Movement Screen’ (FMS) is widely used by applied practitioners as a pre-participation screening tool to identify poor movement quality. The aim of this study was to critically appraise and synthesise studies investigating the reliability and predictive validity of the FMS.