Differential Biomechanical Effects of an ACL Injury Prevention Program in Women's Basketball and Soccer Players

January 6, 2016 updated by: High Point University
Anterior cruciate ligament injury programs are less successful in women's basketball than soccer players, yet the reason for this discrepancy is unknown. Thus, this study will recruit high school aged girl's basketball and soccer players, randomized teams into control and experimental groups, administer an ACL injury prevention program in the experimental group and compare the two groups on their lower extremity biomechanics before and after completion of the program. Biomechanical analyses will help determine the extent to which women's basketball and soccer players respond differently to a uniform injury prevention program, and whether this prevention program provides an adequate stimulus to improve lower extremity biomechanics during basketball-specific tasks.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury prevention programs are considerably less successful in women's basketball than women's soccer. Women's basketball and soccer are each characterized by distinct sport-specific demands, where women's basketball players perform significantly more frequent jumping (2- and 1-legged landings) and frontal plane movements than women's soccer players. Despite varying sport-specific demands, ACL injury prevention programs have been uniformly administered in both sports, and emphasize improving high-risk biomechanics during 2-legged sagittal plane tasks. As such, they may not provide the appropriate stimulus to reduce ACL injury risk during the high-risk demands associated with women's basketball. To date, the differential biomechanical adaptations that result from ACL injury prevention programs in women's basketball and soccer have never been investigated.

This study will use a cluster randomized controlled trial using a repeated measures design. Participants will be randomized (by team) in to control and intervention groups. Participants in the control group will be asked to continue their normal daily and athletic activities (practices, games) without participating any distinct injury prevention training. Participants in the intervention group will complete at 6 week ACL injury prevention program previously described in the literature as being effective at reducing ACL injury risk. The prevention program lasts 20-25 minutes in duration and will take place as a warm-up prior to any practice. The frequency will depend solely on the number of practices each team holds throughout the given 6-week time period. A member of the research team plans to be at each intervention session. All participants will complete pre- and post-testing approximately 1 week before the onset and after the completion of the prevention program, respectively. As stated previously, all pre- and post-testing will be performed at the High Point University Human Biomechanics and Physiology Laboratory.

The following are Specific Aims and Hypotheses. Specific Aim 1. To determine the extent to which women's basketball and soccer players employ distinct lower extremity movement strategies during sagittal and frontal plane jump landing tasks.

Hypothesis 1. Prior to training, women's basketball athletes will exhibit no significant differences in high-risk hip and knee kinematics, but will generate higher hip and knee joint moments during jump landing activities than women's soccer players.

Specific Aim 2. To determine the response of women's basketball and soccer athletes to a 6-week ACL injury prevention program, as measured by changes in multi-planar hip and knee biomechanics of jump landings during sagittal and frontal plane jump landing tasks.

Hypothesis 1. After 6 weeks of training, high-risk biomechanics will improve to a larger extent during sagittal plane than frontal plane jump landing tasks.

Hypothesis 2. After 6 weeks of training, there will be no significant differences in biomechanical changes in women's basketball compared to women's soccer players.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

99

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • North Carolina
      • High Point, North Carolina, United States, 27268
        • High Point University

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

8 years to 15 years (Child, Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

Female

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Participants will need to be participating in high school aged, competitive-level basketball and/or soccer and are medically cleared to participate in sports.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Participants will be excluded if they have a history of lower extremity surgery in the past 6 months, or have been diagnosed with a vestibular, balance, or cardiovascular disorders that may preclude safe participation during landing and jumping activities.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Prevention
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
No Intervention: Basketball Control
Control group of basketball players
Experimental: Basketball intervention
Intervention group of basketball players
Other: Neuromuscular Prevention Program
Participants in the intervention group will complete at 6 week ACL injury prevention program previously described in the literature as being effective at reducing ACL injury risk. The prevention program lasts 20-25 minutes in duration and will take place as a warm-up prior to any practice. The frequency will depend solely on the number of practices each team holds throughout the given 6-week time period.
No Intervention: Soccer Control
Control group of soccer players
Experimental: Soccer Intervention
intervention group of soccer players
Other: Neuromuscular Prevention Program
Participants in the intervention group will complete at 6 week ACL injury prevention program previously described in the literature as being effective at reducing ACL injury risk. The prevention program lasts 20-25 minutes in duration and will take place as a warm-up prior to any practice. The frequency will depend solely on the number of practices each team holds throughout the given 6-week time period.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Lower Extremity Angular Kinematics (hip flexion, hip adduction, hip internal rotation, knee flexion, abduction, knee internal rotation, knee external rotation)
Time Frame: 6-8 weeks
6-8 weeks
Lower Extremity Kinetics (hip flexion, hip adduction, hip internal rotation, knee flexion, abduction, knee internal rotation, knee external rotation external moments)
Time Frame: 6-8 weeks
6-8 weeks

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Triple Jump Distance
Time Frame: 6-8 weeks
6-8 weeks
Maximal Vertical Jump Height
Time Frame: 6-8 weeks
Countermovement jump
6-8 weeks
Agility
Time Frame: 6-8 weeks
T-test
6-8 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

High Point University

Collaborators

University of North Carolina, Greensboro

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Jeffrey B Taylor, DPT, High Point University

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

May 1, 2015

Primary Completion (Actual)

November 1, 2015

Study Completion (Actual)

November 1, 2015

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

May 21, 2015

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

August 19, 2015

First Posted (Estimate)

August 21, 2015

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

January 8, 2016

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 6, 2016

Last Verified

January 1, 2016

More Information

Terms related to this study

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 201404-370

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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