The ISPA Int Injury Prevention Programme for Youth Competitive Alpine Skiers: A Controlled 12-Month Experimental Study in a Real-World Training Setting.

Thierry Schoeb,Evert Verhagen,Walter O Frey,Mazda Farshad,Jörg Spörri,Stefan Fröhlich

doi:10.3389/fphys.2022.826212

Abstract

Evidence-based injury prevention programmes for youth competitive alpine skiers are widely absent. The aims of this controlled 12-month experimental study were to introduce a novel injury prevention programme targeted to the injury patterns of youth skiers, called ISPAInt, and to compare the differences in injury occurrence between an intervention group (IG) additionally performing the ISPAInt programme and an independent, historical control group (CG) following their regular training routines. None of the skiers of the CG were part of the IG and vice versa. The study was directly conducted within the real-world youth development structures of skiers competing at the under 16 years (U16) level in Switzerland. Seventy-one skiers (aged 14.4 ± 0.3 years) assigned to the IG were compared to 58 age- and gender-matched controls. The IG was offered the ISPAInt programme with the recommendation to perform it at least once per week. Skiers’ adherence to this recommendation was surveyed but not enforced. Injuries were recorded using the Oslo Sports Trauma Research Centre Questionnaire. Primary outcomes were the absolute injury rates (number of injuries/100 athletes per season) and epidemiological incidence proportion (number of injured athletes/100 athletes per season). The secondary outcome was the average 2-weekly prevalence of traumatic knee, knee overuse, and lower back overuse injuries. There were lower absolute rates of all traumatic injuries [rate/risk difference, RD: −57.1 (−98.1, −16.0); rate/risk ratio, RR: 0.665 (0.485, 0.884)] and overuse injuries [RD: −35.9 (−71.0, −0.7); RR: 0.699 (0.493, 0.989)] in the IG than in the CG. Likewise, the epidemiological incidence proportion for all overuse injuries was smaller in the IG [RD: −28.4 (−44.8, −12.0); RR: 0.598 (0.435, 0.822)], while the proportion of skiers suffering from traumatic injuries did not significantly differ between the groups. Notably, the IG particularity differed from the CG in the average 2-weekly prevalence of knee trauma, knee overuse, and lower back overuse complaints, three of the major injury-related hot spots in youth skiers. Based on these promising results, the ISPAInt programme may have great potential to prevent injuries in youth competitive alpine skiers, and the underlying exercises should be considered complementary training content at the U16 level.

Highlights

The benefits of exercise-based injury prevention programmes have been demonstrated in several competitive sports (Junge et al, 2002; Mandelbaum et al, 2005; Michaelidis and Koumantakis, 2014; Riva et al, 2016; Soomro et al, 2016; Mehl et al, 2018; Petushek et al, 2018; Webster and Hewett, 2018; Huang et al, 2020; Pas et al, 2020)
Competitive alpine skiing is known as a sport with relatively high injury rates (Florenes et al, 2009; Westin et al, 2012; Bere et al, 2013a; Hildebrandt and Raschner, 2013; Haaland et al, 2016; Müller et al, 2017; Alhammoud et al, 2020; Fröhlich et al, 2020a,b; Peterhans et al, 2020; Schoeb et al, 2020)
Striking is the high number of injuries occurring in youth skiers, namely, the under 16-years (U16) category (Schoeb et al, 2020)

Summary

Introduction

The benefits of exercise-based injury prevention programmes have been demonstrated in several competitive sports (Junge et al, 2002; Mandelbaum et al, 2005; Michaelidis and Koumantakis, 2014; Riva et al, 2016; Soomro et al, 2016; Mehl et al, 2018; Petushek et al, 2018; Webster and Hewett, 2018; Huang et al, 2020; Pas et al, 2020). Competitive alpine skiing is known as a sport with relatively high injury rates (Florenes et al, 2009; Westin et al, 2012; Bere et al, 2013a; Hildebrandt and Raschner, 2013; Haaland et al, 2016; Müller et al, 2017; Alhammoud et al, 2020; Fröhlich et al, 2020a,b; Peterhans et al, 2020; Schoeb et al, 2020). Striking is the high number of injuries occurring in youth skiers, namely, the under 16-years (U16) category (Schoeb et al, 2020). Traumatic injuries in youth skiers primarily relate to the knee, while overuse injuries most frequently affect the knee and lower back (Schoeb et al, 2020). There were other locations of injury, but the aforementioned body parts were by far the most frequently affected (Schoeb et al, 2020)

Methods

Results

Conclusion