General versus sports-specific injury prevention programs in athletes
- Introduction Annually, 2 million sports-related injuries are reported in Germany of which athletes contribute to a large proportion. Multiple sport injury prevention programs designed to decrease acute and overuse injuries in athletes have been proven effective. Yet, the programs’ components, general or sports-specific, that led to these positive effects are uncertain. Despite not knowing about the superiority of sports-specific injury prevention programs, coaches and athletes alike prefer more specialized rather than generalized exercise programs. Therefore, this systematic review aimed to present the available evidence on how general and sports-specific prevention programs affect injury rates in athletes. Methods PubMed and Web of Science were electronically searched throughout April 2018. The inclusion criteria were publication dates Jan 2006–Dec 2017, athletes (11–45 years), exercise-based injury prevention programs and injury incidence. The methodological quality was assessed with the Cochrane Collaboration assessmentIntroduction Annually, 2 million sports-related injuries are reported in Germany of which athletes contribute to a large proportion. Multiple sport injury prevention programs designed to decrease acute and overuse injuries in athletes have been proven effective. Yet, the programs’ components, general or sports-specific, that led to these positive effects are uncertain. Despite not knowing about the superiority of sports-specific injury prevention programs, coaches and athletes alike prefer more specialized rather than generalized exercise programs. Therefore, this systematic review aimed to present the available evidence on how general and sports-specific prevention programs affect injury rates in athletes. Methods PubMed and Web of Science were electronically searched throughout April 2018. The inclusion criteria were publication dates Jan 2006–Dec 2017, athletes (11–45 years), exercise-based injury prevention programs and injury incidence. The methodological quality was assessed with the Cochrane Collaboration assessment tools. Results Of the initial 6619 findings, 15 studies met the inclusion criteria. In addition, 13 studies were added from reference lists and external sources making a total of 28 studies. Of which, one used sports-specific, seven general and 20 mixed prevention strategies. Twenty-four studies revealed reduced injury rates. Of the four ineffective programs, one was general and three mixed. Conclusion The general and mixed programs positively affect injury rates. Sports-specific programs are uninvestigated and despite wide discussion regarding the definition, no consensus was reached. Defining such terminology and investigating the true effectiveness of such IPPs is a potential avenue for future research.…
Author details: | Hendrik MugeleORCiD, Ashley Plummer, Kathrin Steffen, Josefine StollORCiDGND, Frank MayerORCiDGND, Juliane MüllerORCiDGND |
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DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0205635 |
ISSN: | 1932-6203 |
Title of parent work (English): | PLOS ONE |
Subtitle (English): | A systematic review on the effect on injury rates |
Publisher: | Public Library of Science |
Place of publishing: | San Francisco |
Publication type: | Article |
Language: | English |
Date of first publication: | 2018/10/19 |
Publication year: | 2018 |
Release date: | 2018/11/22 |
Tag: | adolescent sport; amateur soccer players; cruciate ligament injury; exercise program; hamstring injuries; randomized-controlled-trial; risk-factors; team handball; training-program; youth football |
Volume: | 13 |
Issue: | 10 |
First page: | 1 |
Last Page: | 16 |
Funding institution: | Universität Potsdam, Publikationsfonds |
Funding number: | PA 2018_67 |
Organizational units: | Humanwissenschaftliche Fakultät / Strukturbereich Kognitionswissenschaften |
DDC classification: | 5 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik / 50 Naturwissenschaften / 500 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik |
6 Technik, Medizin, angewandte Wissenschaften / 61 Medizin und Gesundheit / 610 Medizin und Gesundheit | |
Peer review: | Referiert |
Grantor: | Publikationsfonds der Universität Potsdam |
Publishing method: | Open Access |
License (German): | CC-BY - Namensnennung 4.0 International |
External remark: | Zweitveröffentlichung in der Schriftenreihe Postprints der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe ; 481 |