Worse knee confidence, fear of movement, psychological readiness to return-to-sport and pain are associated with worse function after ACL reconstruction

Objectives: To determine whether knee confidence, fear of movement, psychological readiness to return-to-sport or pain are associated with patient-reported and performance-based function and return to pivoting sport in individuals one-year after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR). Design: Cross-sectional study.

Setting: University-laboratory.

Participants: 118 individuals one-year post-ACLR. Main outcome measures: The KOOS-sport/recreation and IKDC and three hopping tasks were used to assess patient-reported and performance-based function, respectively. Questions regarding return to pivoting sport assessed return-to-sport status. Fear of movement (Tampa Scale), knee confidence (an item from KOOS, Visual Analogue Scale-VAS confidence during hopping tasks), knee pain (KOOS-pain, VAS pain during hopping tasks) and psychological readiness to return-to-sport (ACL-RSI) were also assessed.

Results: Worse fear of movement (p = 0.019), KOOS-pain (p < 0.001), ACL-RSI (p < 0.001), task-specific knee confidence and pain were associated with poorer patient-reported function. Worse task-specific knee confidence (p < 0.001) and pain (p < 0006) and ACL-RSI (p < 0.016) were associated with poorer performance-based function. Higher ACL-RSI scores were associated with higher odds of returning to pivoting sport one-year post-ACLR (p < 0.001).

Conclusion: Individual's fear of movement, knee confidence, psychological readiness to return-to-sport and pain are related to function. Evaluating and considering knee confidence, fear of movement, and psychological readiness should be an important part of comprehensive post-ACLR rehabilitation.