Community-level Australian Football Research Articles

Predictors of lower extremity injuries at the community level of Australian football.

To identify risk factors for general lower extremity injury at the community level of Australian football. Prospective cohort study. Community-level Australian football. One hundred twenty-six adult players from 4 community-level Australian football clubs. During the 2000 preseason period, all participants underwent a baseline assessment involving a self-report questionnaire and a battery of musculoskeletal screening tests to collect information about potential risk factors for lower extremity injury. Over the course of the season, injury surveillance and exposure data collection were undertaken at each club. A lower extremity injury, resulting in missed participation and/or treatment from a health professional, as the first injury during the season. For 59 players, a lower extremity injury was the first injury sustained during the season. Only ankle dorsiflexion range of movement, measured using the weightbearing lunge test, was significantly associated with sustaining a lower extremity injury through univariate analyses. Using survival analyses, and after adjusting for exposure, age, frequency of weight training participation, and the past injury status of players were identified as independent, but not significant, predictors of time to sustaining a lower extremity injury. Despite the large number of potential risk factors studied and the high incidence of lower extremity injuries in the cohort, a definitive individual injury risk profile for all lower extremity injuries was not identified, potentially due to the heterogeneity of the outcome of interest. Further research should focus on the identification of risk factors for the most common and costly individual injuries in Australian football.

A pilot study of the attitudes of Australian Rules footballers towards protective headgear

Despite a relatively high risk of injury to participants of Australian Rules football, very few players report wearing protective equipment. The aim of this paper is to describe the results of a pilot survey of the attitudes of community-level Australian Rules football players towards protective headgear and the risk of head injury. Seventy players from four purposefully chosen clubs in metropolitan Melbourne completed a self-report questionnaire at the end of the 2000-playing season. Almost all players (91.4%) reported they did not wear protective headgear during the 2000 season. Non-headgear users said that headgear was too uncomfortable (47.4%) and they didn't like it (42.1%). However, 80.0% of non-users said they would wear it if it prevented injury. The major motivation for wearing headgear was to prevent injury. Players considered rugby, boxing and driving a car, to be associated with a higher-risk of head injury than Australian Rules football. As a group, the players perceived the risk of head injury in Australian Rules football to be low to moderate when compared to other sports and activities. This partially explains why so few players wore protective headgear. Repeat surveys on a larger sample should be conducted to further understand the attitudes towards protective headgear and perceptions of risk in community-level Australian football players.

Does community-level Australian football support injury prevention research?

The progress of injury prevention research in Australian football to date has been slow despite its recognition as a public health goal. In particular, field-based studies to identify injury risk factors and evaluate the effectiveness of injury prevention strategies need to be undertaken to ensure safety gains in this sport. For these types of studies to be successful and complied with, considerable support is required from clubs, coaches and players. To date, the actual level of support for injury prevention research at the community-level of football has not been established. A survey of 82 club administrators and coaches from the Victorian Amateur Football Association was undertaken to determine the level of support for injury prevention research, along with incentives for, and barriers towards, participation in such research. The highest priorities for injury prevention research were given as the prevention of knee, hamstring and concussion injuries and investigation into the content of training programs. The most common incentives reported as being necessary for participation in injury prevention research were financial assistance (59.5%), more club staff (57.0%) and further education (36.7%). The most commonly reported barriers to research were the expertise (50.0%) and number of (48.8%) of club medical staff members. Overall community-level football club administrators and coaches rank the importance of injury prevention research highly. The findings of this study are positive for injury prevention researchers and suggest that clubs are keen to participate in such research.

PREDICTORS OF HAMSTRING MUSCLE STRAINS AT THE COMMUNITY-LEVEL OF AUSTRALIAN FOOTBALL

PURPOSE Australian football is a full body contact, running sport and is one of the most popular participation sports in Australia with over 180,000 participants nationwide. Hamstring muscle strains are the most common injuries at the community-level of Australian football and result in the most missed playing time. Despite their prevalence, little is known about the risk factors for sustaining these injuries, particularly at the community-level. METHODS A prospective cohort study design was used. During the pre-season, 126 community-level Australian football players from four clubs underwent a baseline screen involving a questionnaire and a musculoskeletal assessment. All players were then monitored over a full season with respect to participation time and injuries sustained. Cox's Proportional Hazards Regression was used to assess the effect of baseline measures in relation to the time to hamstring injury. Quadriceps, hamstring and slump flexibility, age, height and off-season running participation were included in the model. RESULTS Age > 22 years significantly increased, whilst greater quadriceps flexibility significantly reduced, the risk of hamstring injury. Poorer hamstring flexibility and height > 181 cm increased the risk of hamstring strain whilst running during the off-season reduced the risk of sustaining a hamstring injury first-up during the season. CONCLUSION These results highlight the groups of Australian football players at highest risk of sustaining a hamstring muscle strain and can be used to develop injury prevention strategies.

Australian football: Injury profile at the community level

Successful injury prevention relies on injury surveillance to establish the extent of the problem, to monitor injury patterns and to evaluate prevention strategies. Despite the popularity of participation in Australian football at the community level, few injury surveillance studies have been published describing the pattern of injuries at this level of participation. In contrast, ongoing injury surveillance at the elite-level is well established. Reliance on injury data from the elite-level of Australian football to guide injury prevention at the community level may not be appropriate due to differences across the levels with respect to exposure, fitness and skill level. Therefore, specific injury surveillance at the community level of Australian football is warranted. This study describes the epidemiology of community level Australian football injuries. Injury surveillance was undertaken in five amateur Australian football clubs over the 1999 season. The 320 participating players sustained 421 injuries over the season. The overall rate of injury was 27 injuries per 1000 player hours. Injuries were most commonly sustained at the start of the season and during the second quarter of match participation. Hamstring muscle strains were the most common injury sustained, followed by thigh haematomas and lateral ligament sprains of the ankle. The injury surveillance system used in this study was well accepted by the clubs and provides detailed data for the prioritisation of future injury prevention research at the community level of Australian football.

A pilot case-control study to identify injury risk factors in community-level Australian Football players

A pilot case-control study was conducted to identify possible risk factors for injury in three metropolitan Melbourne football leagues. Eighteen cases (injured players) and eighteen controls (uninjured players) participated in the study over a one month period during the 1997 football season. Injury risk factor trends were suggested for player age, player experience, preseason start time, previous injury history, self-training and seasonal sports participation. No trends were suggested with respect to protective equipment use, shoetype, participation in formal training, exposure time, warm up habits and cool down habits. The upper limb was the most commonly injured area. Ligamentous/joint sprains and fractures were the most common natures of injury. The majority of injuries were due to collision/struck by incidents.