Comparative Effectiveness Of Injury Prevention Programs In Female Adolescent Athletes

Injury prevention programs (IPP) decrease injury rates and improve movement-based risk factors, but many coaches do not adopt them. The time required for these programs is frequently reported as a barrier to program adoption. It is not known if a shorter duration IPP can improve movement technique in a manner thought to reduce the risk of injury. To examine if a shorter duration IPP is able to elicit improvements in movement technique similar to the F11+ program in female, high school athletes. A secondary aim was to assess high-risk (LESS ≥ 5) participants’ response to the intervention. A randomized controlled clinical trial was used. Seventy-six healthy, female athletes (Age=15±1 y, Mass: 59.9±10.4 kg, Height: 166.4±6.3 cm) (Field Hockey=21, Soccer=31, Volleyball=24) were stratified by team and randomized into one of three warm-up interventions: Focused (N=25), F11+ (N= 24) or Control (N=27). Participants completed a test session before and after their 2014 Fall season (8-10 weeks). At each session they performed three trials of a jump-landing task and each was scored using the Landing Error Scoring System (LESS). Participants improved their overall LESS scores (P=.002) regardless of group. High-risk participants reduced their LESS scores by nearly 2 errors (PRE: 7.00 ± 1.24, POST 5.06 ±1.74,