Descriptions
Over recent years there has been an increasing focus on the problem of overuse injuries in sports. Studies indicate that in certain sports up to 50% of all athletes may train and compete with overuse injury symptoms.
However, due to shortcomings in the current methodology used to register sports injuries, we are unable to measure the true load that overuse injuries represent. It is likely that the currently accepted methodology, which was developed primarily for the study of acute sports injuries, significantly underestimates the rate of overuse injuries.
Aim
To develop a new method for the registration for overuse injury symptoms.
Method
A new method to register overuse injuries has been developed and it will be tested on five different sports; team handball, floorball, volleyball, cross-country skiing and road cycling. A total of 300 elite athletes will be included.
Injury data will be collected prospectively with a weekly questionnaire over a three-month period. Parallel to this, injury data will be collected using the standard method for injury registration. The new method will then be validated against the standard method.
This project may lead to a change in the way that overuse injuries are recorded in sports epidemiology studies. It will also be of interest as there is relatively little information on overuse injury problems in all five sports included in this study. In the longer term, this research project represents the beginning of an effort at OSTRC to develop effective strategies to prevent overuse injuries in sports.