Cost-effectiveness of an injury prevention program in male amateur soccer
Projectomschrijving
Ongeveer 28% van de sportblessures in Nederland wordt veroorzaakt door veldvoetbal. Deze blessures zorgen voor persoonlijk leed, medische kosten, voetbalverzuim en soms arbeidsverzuim. Daarom worden blessures in het amateurvoetbal en het effect van blessurepreventie onderzocht door het UMC Utrecht en de KNVB. De onderzoekers registreerden alle voetbalblessures bij spelers in eerste klasseteams uit twee districten. Daarnaast deden de teams uit het ene district een reguliere warming-up, terwijl de andere teams het oefenprogramma ‘De11’ uitvoerden tijdens de warming-up. Dit oefenprogramma is ontwikkeld door de FIFA en richt zich voornamelijk op het verbeteren van de coördinatie, stabiliteit, wendbaarheid en kracht in de benen. De onderzoekers analyseren en vergelijken nu de gegevens (seizoen 2009-2010) uit de beide districten.
Verslagen
Samenvatting van de aanvraag
In the Netherlands annually, out of 1.5 million sports injuries 51% are linked with medical treatment and work absenteeism costing €590 million a year. Outdoor soccer causes the largest number of injuries each year (N=420.000), a significant amount of the total costs of sports injuries. Most soccer injuries are located in the lower extremities. Research has shown that poor neuromuscular control, lack of agility and poor eccentric and plyometric strength leads to an increase in the injury risk in lower extremities. In literature there is strong evidence that improvement of these factors through specific exercises is an important factor in the prevention of sports injuries. An injury prevention program called “The F-MARC Bricks”, developed with the support of the World Football Association FIFA, aims at lowering the impact of these injury risk factors in soccer. Research has shown that the 10 exercises of this program directed at improving neuromuscular control, agility and eccentric hamstring strength, reduced injury rates in Swiss junior soccer players (14-19 years) significantly. However, the cost-effectiveness of this program is still unknown. In a randomized controlled trial (RCT) our project focuses on injury prevention-related cost-effectiveness of the “F-MARC Bricks” in Dutch amateur male soccer players (18-40 yrs). We hypothesize that the exercises of the “F-MARC Bricks”, integrated in the warm up, reduce injury incidence and/or injury severity and corresponding medical costs and work absenteeism. After the RCT, a next season follow-up study will be performed to monitor the consolidation of the use of the “F-MARC Bricks” in practice.
The Coach Academy of the Royal Netherlands Football Association (KNVB) and the Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research (TNO Prevention and Care) will participate in providing instructions for implementation of the exercises and monitoring data of health, injuries and associated costs. We assume that this intervention program can also be effective in female players and adolescents, and in other team sports with a high injury incidence and similar injury risk factors like indoor soccer, field hockey, basketball, volleyball, and handball. The potential of “The F-MARC Bricks” illustrates that these sports, including outdoor soccer, contribute to 50% of all medically treated injuries in the Netherlands.