Effects of self-efficacy, catastrophizing, fear of movement and joint position sense in the maintenance of wrist unspecific pain in athletes. An observational study.

Abstract

Wrist pain is a highly prevalent condition in racket sport population. Although different wrist injuries have been described in the literature as more prevalent in racket sport, unspecific chronic wrist pain is common problem on amateur population. Material and methods: A cross-sectional study were conducted between October 2021 to June 2022. Participants over 18 th suffered for wrist pain were recruited from different sports centers where racket sports were practiced. Objective: The aims of this research was to study the relationships and the predictive power of Self-Efficacy, Catastrophizing, Fear of Movement and proprioception on the persistence of unspecific wrist pain in athlete population. Results: One hundred and four athletes participated in the study (54 men and 50 women), most of them tennis and paddle players. Psychological variables were correlated (P 0.01) with wrist pain persistence, suggestive of complex interactions between cognitive-affective processes and wrist unspecific pain in athletes. Conclusion: The results suggest that targeting high levels of Self-Efficacy, Catastrophizing and Fear of Movement could be a prognostic factor of wrist unspecific maintained pain in athlete population.