Date of Award
1-1-2025
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Ph.D. in Health and Kinesiology
First Advisor
Chip Wade
Second Advisor
Thomas Andre
Third Advisor
Corbit Franks
School
University of Mississippi
Relational Format
dissertation/thesis
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) are the leading cause of time lost from work in the healthcare industry (US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2022). Women account for 75 percent of the total employment in hospitals (BLS, 2022). It is important to identify key risk factors that may be contributing to the high rates of injury in this sector. Females bring a variety of unique factors into account, and understanding these factors could be critical for improving individual health and the burden placed on the system due to absenteeism resulting from injury. The cyclical hormonal fluctuations that occur over a menstrual cycle could potentially explain the rates of injury observed among females and provide insight into heightened risk for impairment of function and injury. PURPOSE: The purpose of the study was to investigate the implications of the menstrual cycle phases on biomechanics and injury risk. METHODS: 40 females were recruited and enrolled in the study. The final sample included 26 eumenorrheic females. The study consisted of 7 visits over two cycles. Measures included a RightEye Dynamic Vision assessment, a Proteus upper extremity function test, a balance assessment, and the Noraxon Human Factors and Ergonomics assessment. Linear mixed effects models were used to determine the effects of cycle and phase on performance. The threshold for statistical significance was set at p< 0.05. RESULTS: Significant phase effects were observed across certain variables; however, these were not consistently observed across the cycles in each of the studies. There was no clear phase-specific impact of the menstrual cycle on the parameters of interest. Post hoc comparisons suggested that among the variables with apparent phase effects in at least one cycle, when the assessments were averaged across cycles, there were no significant differences between the phases. CONCLUSIONS: There appear to be variable-specific effects of the menstrual cycle phase; however, the effects were not consistently observed across cycles, suggesting no clear consensus can be reached on the relationship between cycle phase and performance. Future studies should focus on implementing robust methodological approaches while also considering longitudinal study designs to gain better insight into the variability in parameters across the cycle.
Recommended Citation
Armstrong, Kaitlyn Ashley, "The Implications of The Menstrual Cycle on Upper Extremity Function and Injury Risk" (2025). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 3234.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/etd/3234