Abstract
We aimed to determine whether an Athletics Injury Prevention Programme (AIPP), targeting the most common athletics injuries, can reduce the occurrence of injury complaints that lead to restrictions in athletics participation (participation restriction injury complaints) in the short (12 weeks) and long (40 weeks) terms. For our 40-week prospective cohort study (level of evidence 2), we invited inter-regional and national-level athletes to regularly perform the AIPP, which included 8 exercises addressing core stability, hamstring, leg and pelvic muscles strengthening and stretching, and balance exercises. A Cox regression was used to analyse the influence of AIPP on the occurrence of participation restriction injury complaint, adjusted to sex, age, height, body mass, discipline, and history of injury complaints during the preceding season, individual response rate, mean weekly training time, mean weekly number of competition, presented by hazard ratio (HR) with 95% confidence interval (95% CI). At 12 weeks (n = 62 athletes), the AIPP was significantly associated with a lower risk of participation restriction injury complaint HR = 0.36 (95% CI: 0.15 to 0.86), p = 0.02 and HR = 0.29 (95% CI: 0.12 to 0.73), p = 0.009, with cumulative weeks and cumulative training time as time scale, respectively, while at 40 weeks (n = 53 athletes) there was no significant association. An 8-exercise injury prevention programme can effectively help to reduce occurrence of injury complaints that would restrict an athlete’s participation in athletics in the short term.
Highlights
Athletics (Track and Field) participation leads to a risk of injuries [1]
To measure the efficacy of the programme, we asked the athletes to provide us, using a weekly online questionnaire, with data regarding their participation in the programme (i.e., Athletics Injury Prevention Programme (AIPP)), any injury complaints incurred and how these affected their participation in athletics, training, and/or competition exposure
Our results show that performing the AIPP can help to reduce the occurrence of participation restriction injury complaints in the short term
Summary
Athletics (Track and Field) participation leads to a risk of injuries [1]. about 61%–76%of athletes incur at least one injury during any one season, and injury incidences from 3.6 to 3.9 injuries per 1000 h of athletics have been reported, varying with age, sex, and athletics disciplines [2,3,4].Some injuries have been reported to be the most common, with injury diagnosis varying according to the discipline: hamstring muscle injuries (especially in sprints, hurdles, and jumps), Achilles tendinopathies (especially in sprints, jumps, middle- and long-distances), knee overuse injuries including patellar tendinopathies (especially in sprints, middle- and long-distances), shin splints and stress fractures (especially in sprints, middle- and long-distances), ankle sprains (especially in jumps and throws), and low back pain (especially in jumps and throws) [2,3,4,5].Whatever the level, age or discipline, injury affects an athlete’s life. Athletics (Track and Field) participation leads to a risk of injuries [1]. Of athletes incur at least one injury during any one season, and injury incidences from 3.6 to 3.9 injuries per 1000 h of athletics have been reported, varying with age, sex, and athletics disciplines [2,3,4]. Age or discipline, injury affects an athlete’s life. Injuries may force athletes to reduce their training load (volume and/or intensity, so restricting their participation), cause them to drop out of a single competition, miss an entire season or, in the worst case scenario, bring their career to a premature end [1]. Injury prevention strategies in athletics represents a win-win perspective for athletes, coaches, and medical staff [1,8,9]
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