The Athletics Injury Prevention Programme Can Help to Reduce the Occurrence at Short Term of Participation Restriction Injury Complaints in Athletics: A Prospective Cohort Study

Abstract

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.

Effect of an Unsupervised Exercises-Based Athletics Injury Prevention Programme on Injury Complaints Leading to Participation Restriction in Athletics: A Cluster-Randomised Controlled Trial

“…We excluded athletes if they declined to participate in the study or if they were unable to express agreement or signing the informed consent. We did not exclude athletes based on their baseline injury status or history [ 10 ].…”

“…The lack of studies analysing injury risk reduction programmes in athletics motivated Edouard et al [ 10 ] to develop and analyse an exercises-based injury risk reduction programme. The Athletics Injury Prevention Programme (AIPP) was developed based on the literature on the epidemiology of athletics injuries, injury risks factors, and current evidence-based exercises-based injury prevention programmes [ 10 ], and aimed to target the most common athletics injuries (hamstring muscle injuries, Achilles and patellar tendinopathies, low back pain, ankle sprains) [ 1 , 2 , 3 ]. The AIPP included strengthening, stretching and neuromuscular control exercises aiming at targeting the most common athletics injuries [ 10 ].…”

“…The Athletics Injury Prevention Programme (AIPP) was developed based on the literature on the epidemiology of athletics injuries, injury risks factors, and current evidence-based exercises-based injury prevention programmes [ 10 ], and aimed to target the most common athletics injuries (hamstring muscle injuries, Achilles and patellar tendinopathies, low back pain, ankle sprains) [ 1 , 2 , 3 ]. The AIPP included strengthening, stretching and neuromuscular control exercises aiming at targeting the most common athletics injuries [ 10 ]. The AIPP revealed promising findings in being significantly associated with lower risk of injury complaints related to athletics practice that leads to restrictions in athletics participation (called then “injury complaint leading to participation restriction” (ICPR)) in the short (12 weeks), but not in the long (40 weeks) terms [ 10 ].…”

“…The AIPP included strengthening, stretching and neuromuscular control exercises aiming at targeting the most common athletics injuries [ 10 ]. The AIPP revealed promising findings in being significantly associated with lower risk of injury complaints related to athletics practice that leads to restrictions in athletics participation (called then “injury complaint leading to participation restriction” (ICPR)) in the short (12 weeks), but not in the long (40 weeks) terms [ 10 ]. Although this was the first prospective cohort study (level of evidence 2) on injury risk reduction programme designed specifically for athletics, the study included a small sample size (62 athletes) and needed to be replicated through a randomised controlled design (RCT).…”

In-competition injuries and performance success in combined events during major international athletics championships

“…This result should support the interest of integrating injury prevention strategies as part of the athletes' preparation. Currently and to our knowledge, there is few scientific evidence on the efficacy of injury prevention measures in athletics, 27 especially in the context of major championships. Therefore, we suggest using measures proposed by evidence from other sports and experience of experts in athletics, 28 focusing on the most common injuries (hamstring injuries, ankle sprains, lower leg muscle injuries and Achilles tendinopathies), and regarding the specific challenges of the multiple events.…”