Aims: Increasing university students’ athletic participation has corresponded with an increase in musculoskeletal injuries. Functional screening presents a practical, noninvasive method for identifying individuals at risk. This study aimed to explore the association between performance in several functional tests—the Functional Movement Screen (FMS™), Y-Balance Test (YBT), Weight-Bearing Lunge Test (WBLT), and Davies test—and the history of sports-related injuries among active college students.
Method and Materials: A cross-sectional design was employed, involving 120 studentathletes (55 female, 65 male; mean age 26.7 ± 4.67 years) at the season’s onset. Assessments included the FMS™, YBT, WBLT, and Davies tests. A structured questionnaire documented sports injuries sustained in the prior six months. Statistical analyses, including independent t-tests, chi-square tests, and binary logistic regression, were utilized to investigate the relationships.
Findings: A significant proportion of participants (26%; 31 individuals) reported at least one injury, predominantly affecting the ankle and knee. Individuals with a history of injury exhibited lower FMS™ scores and demonstrated reduced ankle dorsiflexion during the WBLT (p < 0.05). The logistic regression model was significant overall (χ²(4) = 11.867, p = 0.018). The FMS™ (B = −0.173, p = 0.05) and WBLT (B = −0.223, p = 0.01) were signiicantly associated with injury status, whereas the YBT and Davies test were not.
Conclusion: Both movement quality and ankle dorsiflexion demonstrated a significant association with injury history in university athletes. This suggests that these specific functional aspects may offer more clinical insight than balance or upper-limb stability for this population when assessing injury risk.