1. Controlled ecological evaluation of an implemented exercise-training programme to prevent lower limb injuries in sport: population-level trends in hospital-treated injuries
- Author
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Muhammad Akram, Shannon Gray, David Lloyd, Jill Cook, Alex Donaldson, and Caroline F. Finch
- Subjects
Program evaluation ,Adult ,Male ,medicine.medical_specialty ,Population level ,Adolescent ,Victoria ,injury prevention ,Physical Therapy, Sports Therapy and Rehabilitation ,Football ,Lower limb ,law.invention ,03 medical and health sciences ,Young Adult ,0302 clinical medicine ,Randomized controlled trial ,law ,11. Sustainability ,Epidemiology ,Injury prevention ,Soccer ,medicine ,Humans ,Orthopedics and Sports Medicine ,030212 general & internal medicine ,Young adult ,implementation ,Uncategorized ,Ecology ,business.industry ,030229 sport sciences ,General Medicine ,Middle Aged ,Athletic Injuries ,Original Article ,business ,exercise training ,Leg Injuries ,Physical Conditioning, Human ,Program Evaluation - Abstract
ObjectiveExercise-training programmes have reduced lower limb injuries in trials, but their population-level effectiveness has not been reported in implementation trials. This study aimed to demonstrate that routinely collected hospital data can be used to evaluate population-level programme effectiveness.MethodA controlled ecological design was used to evaluate the effect of FootyFirst, an exercise-training programme, on the number of hospital-treated lower limb injuries sustained by males aged 16–50 years while participating in community-level Australian Football. FootyFirst was implemented with ‘support’ (FootyFirst+S) or ‘without support’ (FootyFirst+NS) in different geographic regions of Victoria, Australia: 22 clubs in region 1: FootyFirst+S in 2012/2013; 25 clubs in region 2: FootyFirst+NS in 2012/2013; 31 clubs region 3: control in 2012, FootyFirst+S in 2013. Interrupted time-series analysis compared injury counts across regions and against trends in the rest of Victoria.ResultsAfter 1 year of FootyFirst+S, there was a non-statistically significant decline in the number of lower limb injuries in region 1 (2012) and region 3 (2013); this was not maintained after 2 years in region 1. Compared with before FootyFirst in 2006–2011, injury count changes at the end of 2013 were: region 1: 20.0% reduction (after 2 years support); region 2: 21.5% increase (after 2 years without support); region 3: 21.8% increase (after first year no programme, second year programme with support); rest of Victoria: 12.6% increase.ConclusionEcological analyses using routinely collected hospital data show promise as the basis of population-level programme evaluation. The implementation and sustainability of sports injury prevention programmes at the population-level remains challenging.
- Published
- 2023
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