Sports injury prevention programmes from the sports physical therapist's perspective: An international expert Delphi approach

Luciana De Michelis Mendonça, Joke Schuermans, Sander Denolf, Christopher Napier, Natália F.N. Bittencourt, Andrés Romanuk, Igor Tak, Kristian Thorborg, Mario Bizzini, Carlo Ramponi, Colin Paterson, Martin Hägglund, Laurent Malisoux, Wesam Saleh A. Al Attar, Mina Samukawa, Ernest Esteve, Ummkulthoum Bakare, Maria Constantinou, Anthony Schneiders, Alexandre Cavallieri GomesDidier Florentz, Derya Ozer Kaya, Syahmirza Indra Lesmana, Joar Harøy, Vesa Kuparinen, Nicola Philips, Walter Jenkins, Evi Wezenbeek, Erik Witvrouw

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    Abstract

    Objective: To provide consensus on how to plan, organize and implement exercise-based injury prevention program (IPP) in sports.

    Design: Delphi.

    Setting: LimeSurvey platform.

    Participants: Experienced sports physical therapists from the International Federation of Sports Physical Therapy member countries.

    Main outcome measures: Factors related to sports IPP planning, organization and implementation.

    Results: We included 305 participants from 32 countries. IPP planning should be based on an athlete's injury history, on pre-season screening results, and on injury rates (respectively, 98%, 92%, 89% agreement). In total 97% participants agreed that IPP organization should depend on the athlete's age, 93% on the competition level, and 93% on the availability of low-cost materials. It was agreed that IPP should mainly be implemented in warm-up sessions delivered by the head or strength/conditioning coach, with physical training sessions and individual physical therapy sessions (respectively, 94%, 92%, 90% agreement).

    Conclusion: Strong consensus was reached on (1) IPP based on the athlete's injury history, pre-season screening and evidence-based sports-specific injury rates; (2) IPP organization based on the athlete's age, competition level, and the availability of low-cost materials and (3) IPP implementation focussing on warm-up sessions implemented by the strength/conditioning coach, and/or individual prevention sessions by the physical therapist.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)146-154
    Number of pages9
    JournalPhysical Therapy in Sport
    Volume55
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 7 Apr 2022

    Bibliographical note

    Funding Information:
    This work has been supported by grants from the Coordena??o de Aperfei?oamento de Pessoal de N?vel Superior (CAPES - Brazil; finance code 0001).

    Funding Information:
    This work has been supported by grants from the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES - Brazil; finance code 0001).

    Publisher Copyright:
    © 2022 Elsevier Ltd

    Keywords

    • Athletic injuries
    • Consensus
    • Physical therapy

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