Abstract
Football is a popular sport among adolescent females. Given the rate of injuries in female footballers, identifying factors that can predict injuries are important. These injuries are often caused by complex reasons. The aim of this study was to investigate if the combination of demographic (age, number of training and match play hours/week), psychosocial (perceived stress, adaptive coping strategies) and physiological factors (functional performance) can predict a traumatic injury in adolescent female footballers. A cohort consisting of 419 female football players aged 13–16 years was established. Baseline questionnaires covered potential risk factors for sport injuries, and measurements included football-related functional performance tests. Data were collected prospectively with a weekly online questionnaire for 52 weeks covering, e.g., injuries, training, and match play hours/week. A total of 62% of the players reported at least one traumatic injury during the 52 weeks. The coping strategy “positive reframing” had the strongest association with the risk of traumatic injuries. The combination of more frequent use of the coping strategy, positive reframing, and high levels of physical performance capacity may prevent a traumatic injury in adolescent female footballers. Coaches are encouraged to adopt both physiological and psychological factors when preventing injuries in young female footballers.
Highlights
Introduction published maps and institutional affilFootball is a popular sport for females, and adolescent females under 17 years old represent 62.5% of all female players according to the International Football Federation (FIFA).Injuries are the back coin of sports, and female footballers are no exception
The aim of this study was to investigate if the combination of demographic, psychosocial and physiological factors can predict a traumatic injury in adolescent female football players
Based on previous suggestions about the interdisciplinary combination of risk factors for sport injuries, this study aimed to investigate if demographic factors, coping strategies, perceived stress, and functional performance were predictors of traumatic injuries in young female football players
Summary
Football is a popular sport for females, and adolescent females under 17 years old represent 62.5% of all female players according to the International Football Federation (FIFA). Injuries are the back coin of sports, and female footballers are no exception. The injury incidence during matches is six times higher than the incidence during training: 19.2 injuries per 1000 h of exposure to matches (95% CI 16.0–22.4) and. 3.5 injuries per 1000 h of training (95% CI 2.4–4.6) in adult female football players [2]. Risk factors and injury mechanisms for these injuries have been commonly investigated. Most studies investigate and report isolated risk factors such as previous injury [8], a hamstring/quadriceps ratio less than 55%, and results of plyometric tests, e.g., poor performance in a drop jump iations
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