Information about project titled 'Nordic Football Injury Audit – Injury surveillance in the first leagues of Sweden (Allsvenskan) and Norway (Tippeligaen)'
Nordic Football Injury Audit – Injury surveillance in the first leagues of Sweden (Allsvenskan) and Norway (Tippeligaen)
| Details about the project - category | Details about the project - value |
|---|---|
| Project status: | Published |
| Project manager: | John Bjørneboe |
| Supervisor(s): | Thor Einar Andersen, Roald Bahr, Lars Engebretsen |
| Coworker(s): | Jan Ekstrand, Markus Waldén, Martin Hägglund, Karolina Kristenson |
Description
It has been demonstrated that the overall risk of injury to professional football players is approximately 1000 times higher than for industrial occupations generally regarded as high risk. It has also been demonstrated that there can be a correlation between injuries and team success. Injuries affect performance in a negative way and teams that can avoid injuries have greater success as evaluated by the final position in the league system.
Prevention of sports injury is a very challenging issue and can be seen as a four step sequence: (1) the extent of the injury problem is evaluated through injury surveillance, (2) injury risk factors and injury mechanisms are established, (3) based on this information preventive strategies are introduced, and, (4) these strategies are evaluated by repeating step one. This means that injury surveillance studies that evaluate the epidemiology of injuries are essential when aiming for prevention of injuries.
The main objective is to decrease the overall injury risk to elite football players. The study is an attempt to create a consensus for data collection and a common injury database for the Nordic countries.
Methods
All teams qualified for the 2010 season of the first leagues of Sweden (Allsvenskan, 16 teams) and Norway (Tippeligaen, 16 teams) will be invited to participate in the study. All players with a first team contract are eligible to be included in the study.
The clubs will be provided with a standard computer-based exposure registration form. The club contact person will be responsible for filling in this form with data on the player’s individual attendance and participation time in training sessions and matches. The attendance record includes all first team training sessions and matches as well as participation with national teams and reserve teams.
Injuries are defined as absence from training sessions and matches due to injury. These cases should be reported on the attendance record and an injury report form filled in. A recordable injury is defined as any injury that occurs during scheduled training sessions or matches and causes the player to interrupt the session or miss a following session.
The study procedures follow strictly the recent consensus agreement, agreed upon by the leading governing bodies of football, FIFA and UEFA, concerning recommended methodology and terminology for football injury studies. This harmonization enables valid comparisons between different studies.