We aimed to determine whether an Athletics Injury Prevention Programme (AIPP), targeting the most common athletics injuries, can reduce the occurrence of injury complaints that lead to restrictions in athletics participation (participation restriction injury complaints) in the short (12 weeks) and long (40 weeks) terms. For our 40-week prospective cohort study (level of evidence 2), we invited inter-regional and national-level athletes to regularly perform the AIPP, which included 8 exercises addressing core stability, hamstring, leg and pelvic muscles strengthening and stretching, and balance exercises. A Cox regression was used to analyse the influence of AIPP on the occurrence of participation restriction injury complaint, adjusted to sex, age, height, body mass, discipline, and history of injury complaints during the preceding season, individual response rate, mean weekly training time, mean weekly number of competition, presented by hazard ratio (HR) with 95% confidence interval (95% CI). At 12 weeks (n = 62 athletes), the AIPP was significantly associated with a lower risk of participation restriction injury complaint HR = 0.36 (95% CI: 0.15 to 0.86), p = 0.02 and HR = 0.29 (95% CI: 0.12 to 0.73), p = 0.009, with cumulative weeks and cumulative training time as time scale, respectively, while at 40 weeks (n = 53 athletes) there was no significant association. An 8-exercise injury prevention programme can effectively help to reduce occurrence of injury complaints that would restrict an athlete’s participation in athletics in the short term.

BackgroundAthletics practice leads risk of injuries with negative consequences on participation. It is therefore important to develop and validate strategies to prevent it.ObjectiveTo determine whether an Athletics Injury Prevention Program (AIPP), targeting the most common athletic injury types (hamstring strain, achilles and patellar tendinopathy, low back pain, ankle sprain), can reduce the occurrence of injury complaints with decreased participation (IC) related to athletics practice.DesignProspective cohort study.SettingRegional- to international-level athletics athletes.ParticipantsA total of 63 athletes, with ≥75% of response rate to a questionnaire with weekly follow-up on AIPP adherence and IC, during one athletics season (43 weeks).InterventionsAn 8-exercise AIPP, addressing core stability, hamstrings and leg eccentric muscle strengthening and stretching, pelvis balance and stabilizing work.Main Outcome MeasurementsAdherence to AIPP, incidence of IC and prevalence of weeks with IC. Relative risks (RR) with 95% CI between two groups: “AIPP+” corresponding to athletes executing AIPP≥1/week vs. “AIPP-” corresponding to athletes performing AIPP<1/week.ResultsAt short term (12 weeks, n=63 athletes), there was a significant lower incidence of IC in AIPP+ (n=33; 1.5±0.6 AIPP/week) compared to AIPP- (n=30; 0.5±0.3 AIPP/week) (6.1±2.8 vs. 11.3±4.0 IC per 1000 hours of practice; RR=0.53, 95% CI: 0.30–0.95). At long term (40 weeks, n=40 athletes), there were i) a significant reduction in number of weeks with IC in AIPP+ (n=11; 1.4±0.6 AIPP/week) compared to AIPP− (n=27; 0.6±0.3 AIPP/week) (8.0% vs. 16.4%; RR=0.49, 95% CI: 0.34–0.70), and ii) a significant lower incidence of hamstring IC in AIPP+ compared to AIPP− (1.3±1.3 vs. 2.6±1.2 IC per 1000 hours of practice; RR=0.13, 95% CI: 0.02–0.97).ConclusionsAn 8-exercise prevention program, based on a scientific evidence and performed more than once a week, resulted in a protective effect on injury complaints with decreased sport participation at both short and long term.

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