The Dorsiflexion Range of Motion Screen: A Validation Study.

Thirty-seven ambulatory university students were tested, all injury-free at the time of testing, so the findings may not apply to older patients or injured athletes. The screen was scored by trained physical therapists after instruction by someone who helped develop the screen, so agreement may not transfer to clinicians without that training. The study tested agreement and category separation, not whether the screen predicts injury; the authors call for prospective studies to determine injury risk identification ability. The behind category mean was 41.3 degrees, which the authors noted was higher than expected, so category cut-points may not match clinical expectations. The authors note participants could have had chronic ankle instability, Achilles tendinopathy, or plantar fasciitis despite being injury-free at testing.

Do not conclude that this screen predicts ankle sprain risk. It was tested only for agreement between raters and for separating behind and beyond categories in 37 injury-free college students, and the authors call for prospective studies to determine injury risk identification ability.