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Controlled ecological evaluation of an implemented exercise-training programme to prevent lower limb injuries in sport: Population-level trends in hospital-treated injuries
Finch, Caroline F. Gray, Shannon E. Akram, Muhammad Donaldson, Alex Lloyd, David G. Cook, Jill L.
Finch, Caroline F.
Gray, Shannon E.
Akram, Muhammad
Donaldson, Alex
Lloyd, David G.
Cook, Jill L.
Abstract
Objective: Exercise-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. Method: A 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. Results: After 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. Conclusion: Ecological 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.
Keywords
Date
2019
Type
Journal article
Journal
British Journal of Sports Medicine
Book
Volume
53
Issue
8
Page Range
487-492
Article Number
ACU Department
Mary MacKillop Institute for Health Research
Faculty of Health Sciences
Faculty of Health Sciences
Collections
Relation URI
Source URL
Event URL
Open Access Status
Open access
License
CC BY-NC 4.0
File Access
Controlled