| dc.description.abstract | Background: Ankle sprain injuries account for around 20% of all soccer injuries and more than 80% of all ankle injuries. Seventy four percent of the patients who suffered an ankle sprain injury have persisting symptoms for 1.5-4 years after the injury. Ankle sprain injuries also have a high recurrence rate. In previous studies, there is little consensus with regard to the risk factors for ankle sprain injuries due to the differences in study population and definitions of ankle injury.
The high incidence and recurrence rate of ankle sprain injuries in male soccer players, the negative consequences after ankle sprain injuries, and lack of consensus in risk factors, indicate that prospective research on risk factors for ankle sprain injuries in a large population of male amateur soccer players is important for developing preventive measures.
Objective: Identify risk factors for ankle sprain injury in male amateur soccer players.
Study design: Prospective cohort study.
Methods: Participants were 456 first-class Dutch male amateur soccer players between 18 and 40 years. Players filled in a preseason questionnaire to record baseline characteristics. During the season, player exposure to training sessions and matches was reported weekly by the coaches. The paramedical staff reported injuries and their etiology online in a web-based injury system. Intrinsic and extrinsic risk factors (age, length, weight, total exposure, ratio training-match, position, intervention ‘The FIFA11’, and history of ankle injury) were determined in a backward stepwise multivariate logistic regression analysis.
Results: During the study period, 55 (12%) initial ankle ligament injuries occurred. Of the 55 injured players 31% had a previous ankle injury. Most ankle ligament injuries occurred during match play (64.8%). Player contact was responsible for 63.6% of the ankle sprain injuries. In a backward logistic regression enter-method significant risk factors were age (OR 0.909, p=0.017), and history of ankle injury (OR 1.762, p=0.079). The sensitivity was 63.6% and the specificity 55.1%. The area under the ROC-curve was 0.636.
Conclusion: The risk factors younger age and history of ankle injury should be interpreted carefully because of the poor discriminative model. Before preventive measures can be developed, further research is needed to determine modifiable and physical risk factors for a first and recurrent ankle sprain injury over a longer time in a larger population of male soccer players. | |
