Tibial Accelerations During the Single-Leg Hop Test: Influence of Fixation

Performance on single-leg hopping (SLH) assessments is commonly included within return-to-sport criteria for rehabilitating athletes. Triaxial accelerometers have been used to quantify impact loading in a variety of movements, including hopping; however, they have never been attached to the tibia during SLH, and their method of fixation has not been investigated.

The purpose of this study was to quantify triaxial accelerations and evaluate the influence of the fixation method of a lightweight inertial measurement unit (Blue Trident) mounted to the tibia during SLH performance.

Single cohort, repeated-measures experimental design.

Sixteen healthy participants (10 females and 6 males; 20 [0.9] y; 1.67 [0.08] m; 66.0 [8.5] kg) met the inclusion criteria, volunteered, and completed this study.

Participants performed 2 sets of 3 SLH trials with an inertial measurement unit (1500 Hz) fixated to the tibia, each set with 1 of 2 attachment methods (double-sided tape [DST] with athletic tape and silicon strap [SS] with Velcro adhesion).

Hop distance, peak tibial acceleration (PTA), time to PTA, and the acceleration slope were assessed during each hop landing.

Repeated-measures analysis of variance determined no significant effect of the attachment method on hop metrics (P = .252). Across 3 trials, both fixation methods (DST and SS) had excellent reliability values (intraclass correlation coefficient: .868-.941) for PTA and acceleration slope but not for time to PTA (intraclass correlation coefficient: .397-.768). The PTA for DST (27.22 [7.94] g) and SS (26.21 [10.48] g) was comparable and had a moderate, positive relationship (DST: r = .72, P < .01; SS: r = .77, P < .01) to SLH distance.

Tibial inertial measurement units with triaxial accelerometers can reliably assess PTA during performance of the SLH, and SS is a viable alternative tibial attachment to DST.