Forty-five per cent lower acute injury incidence but no effect on overuse injury prevalence in youth floorball players (aged 12-17 years) who used an injury prevention exercise programme: two-armed parallel-group cluster randomised controlled trial

Abstract

Objective: To study whether an injury prevention exercise programme would reduce the number of injuries in youth floorball players. METHODS : 81 youth community level floorball teams (48 clusters=clubs) with female and male players (12-17 years) were cluster-randomised into an intervention or control group. Intervention group coaches were instructed to use the Swedish Knee Control programme and a standard running warm-up before every training session, and the running warm-up before every match, during the season. Control teams continued usual training. Teams were followed during the 2017/2018 competitive season (26 weeks). Player exposure to floorball and occurrence of acute and overuse injuries were reported weekly via a web-based player survey using the Oslo Sports Trauma Research Centre Questionnaire. RESULTS : 17 clusters (301 players) in the intervention group and 12 clusters (170 players) in the control group were included for analyses. There were 349 unique injuries in 222 players. The intervention group had a 35% lower incidence of injuries overall than the control group (adjusted incidence rate ratio (IRR) 0.65, 95% CI 0.52 to 0.81). The absolute risk reduction was 6.6% (95% CI 3.2 to 10.0), and the number needed to treat was 152 hours of floorball exposure (95% CI 100 to 316). Intervention group teams had a 45% lower incidence of acute injuries (adjusted IRR 0.55, 95% CI 0.37 to 0.83). There was no difference in the prevalence of overuse injuries (adjusted prevalence rate ratio 0.96, 95% CI 0.73 to 1.26). CONCLUSION : The Knee Control injury prevention programme reduced acute injuries in youth floorball players; there was no effect on overuse injuries.

Trial registration number: Clinical Trials NCT03309904.

Keywords: adolescent; exercises; injury prevention; intervention efficacy; randomised controlled trial.

Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: None declared.

© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2020. Re-use permitted under CC BY. Published by BMJ.

Figures

Figure 1

Flowchart of clusters (clubs), teams and players throughout the trial. F, female; IPEP, injury prevention exercise programme; M, male.

Figure 2

Sex-adjusted injury incidence per week, based on moving average (moving average week 2=competitive week 1+2; moving average week 3=competitive week 2+3, etc) in the intervention group (black line) and control group (grey line). Values within parentheses on the x axis show the number of weekly player reports for each moving average week observation.

Figure 3

Sex-adjusted weekly injury prevalence in the intervention group: all injuries (black line) and substantial injuries (black dotted line); control group: all injuries (grey line) and substantial injuries (grey dotted line). Values within parentheses on the x axis show the number of weekly player reports for each observation.