[Mass sports improves proprioception and reduces valgus stress on the female knee joint]. / Breitensport verbessert die Propriozeption und beugt Valgusstress im Kniegelenk der Frau vor.

AIM: ACL rupture is more common in females than in males. The injury can result in chondral and meniscal damage or chronic instability. Most often ACL rupture occurs during landing after throwing and jumping in ball sports. Many studies have reported on incidence, mechanism of injury and predisposing factors in professional athletes. In contrast, we have investigated the impact of mass sports on predisposing factors for the female ACL rupture. METHOD: In an empirical analytical study leg-axis dynamics, proprioception and foot load of 44 women participating either in regular mass sports or in no sports were investigated by video analysis and on the Biodex-Stability Platform. RESULTS: Our study demonstrates that mass sports improves proprioception of the knee joint. Non-sportive subjects had an increased valgus leg axis during landing in comparison with mass sport participants. CONCLUSION: Here, we show to the best of our knowledge for the first time that moderate sports activity has a positive effect on predisposing factors of the female ACL rupture. We conclude that prevention programmes focussed on jumping and proprioception can lower the incidence of female ACL ruptures.