A Mesh Meta-Analysis of the Effectiveness of Different Warm-Up Exercises to Prevent Knee Injuries in Young Child Soccer Players

Abstract

Objective: A mesh Meta-analysis was used to evaluate the effectiveness of four warm-up exercises to prevent knee injuries in juvenile soccer players. Method: They are a randomized controlled trial (RCT) on FIFA 11+ integrated warm-up, FIFA 11+ Kids integrated warm-up, and neuromuscular training (NMT) warm-up for the prevention of knee joint in juvenile soccer players by a computer search of CNKI, CBMdisc, WanFangdata, Pubmed, Web of science, and SPORTDicus database. The search period was from the establishment of each database to February 2022. Two investigators screened the literature, extracted data, and assessed risk bias for the included studies according to the pre-defined inclusion and exclusion criteria, and finally analyzed the data using Stata 14.0 software and OpenBUGS software. Results: A total of 10 RCT studies with 17,143 subjects, spanning the age range of 7 to 19 years, were included. The results of the reticulated Meta-analysis showed that all three warm-up modalities were effective in reducing the incidence of knee injuries in junior soccer players compared to conventional warm-up, with the optimality in descending order of FIFA 11+ Kids comprehensive warm-up (SUCRA = 85.3), neuromuscular training warm-up (SUCRA = 66.7), and FIFA 11+ combined warm-up (SUCRA = 44). Conclusion: The FIFA 11+ Kids comprehensive warm-up is the most effective warm-up exercise for the prevention of knee injuries in junior and child soccer players, but the above findings need further validation due to the quantity and quality of the literature and the quality of the evidence.