The effect of hand and wrist injuries and the degree of pain on functionality in male boxing, kick boxing and muay thai athletes aged 18-35

The aim of this thesis is to define sports-related hand-wrist injury types and to investigate the effect of hand-wrist pain on functionality in male Boxing, Kick Boxing and Muay Thai athletes aged 18-35. The type of study is observational cross-sectional. 14 different boxing, kickboxing and muay thai sports clubs providing martial arts training within the borders of Istanbul and 47 volunteer athletes registered to these clubs were included in the study. A socio-demographic form for the participants for general and sports information; Turkish Arm, Shoulder and Hand Injuries Questionnaire (DASH-T) to assess functionality and symptom (functional disability) in upper extremity injuries; visual analog scale (VAS) for assessing pain severity; algometer to assess pressure pain threshold and pain tolerance; Moberg Pick-Up Test was applied to evaluate hand dexterity and functionality. Statistical analyzes were made using SPSS 28.0 for Macbook program. The level of significance in the results was accepted as p<0.05. As a consequence in our research, the following results were obtained in male boxing, kickboxing and muay thai athletes between the ages of 18 and 35: function/symptom, work and high performance functional disability increased with the increase in pain intensity at rest, before and after training; with the increase in the pain threshold, the dominant hand eye open and closed hand dexterity and functionality increased; with the increase in pain tolerance, the dominant hand closed hand dexterity and functionality increased and high performance functional disability decreased; pain intensity at rest and before training did not affect dexterity and functionality. It is recommended to develop strategies to reduce hand-wrist injuries for successful performance. Keywords: Boxing, Kick Boxing, Muay Thai, Hand Injuries, Pain, Dexterity and Functionality.