Risk factors for football related injuries in young female football players

Titel

Karolinska football Injury Cohort – KIC. Risk factors for football related injuries in young female football players

A prospective study that follows 13-16 year old female football players weekly over one year to identify risk factors for injuries related to football.

Background

Many of the nearly 100,000 licensed football-playing women in Sweden are young, and the risk of injuries in this group is high. Lower extremities are most vulnerable and also the location for most severe injuries. There are few studies on risk factors for overuse injuries for young football-playing girls or for injuries to the hip, back and neck. Injuries can lead to career ending for athletes, mental illness and are costly for players as well as for society.

Aim

The aim is to establish the incidence of injuries and complaints in young football-playing girls and identify modifiable risk factors for these injuries and complaints divided into traumatic injuries and overuse injuries. The focus is on hip, trunk, back and neck injuries/pain. Factors studied are the results of clinical screening of lower extremities, hip, trunk, back and neck. Moreover, factors such as previous injuries, health, lifestyle, socioeconomic factors, and football related factors, psychological and psychosocial factors are studied.

Method

This study includes 419 adolescent female football players aged 13-16. At baseline, a comprehensive questionnaire was used to capture potential risk factors such as general health factors, health, lifestyle, socioeconomic factors, football-related factors and psychological and psychosocial factors. Clinical tests were carried out to measure strength and/or mobility in the neck, back, hip, knee and ankles. The primary outcome is football related injuries and complaints recorded via a weekly web survey over 52 weeks to capture data that potentially limited the players’ ability to play/and or perform. The data collection took place between the years 2017 and 2021.

Significance

Identifying risk factors for injuries related to football in adolescent female football players is important to be able to propose preventive measures.

Research principle

Karolinska Institutet

Funding

Active Life Foundation, Swedish Research Council for Sport Science,
Norwegian Naprapath Association, Scandinavian College of Naprapathic Manual Medicine,
Swedish Naprapath Association, Sophiahemmet foundation.

Contact

Professor Eva Skillgate – Primary Investigator, Research group leader for Musculoskeletal & Sports Injury Epidemiology Center, eva.skillgate@shh.se