General versus sports-specific injury prevention programs in athletes: A systematic review on the effects on performance

Abstract

Introduction Injury prevention programs (IPPs) are an inherent part of training in recreational and professional sports. Providing performance-enhancing benefits in addition to injury prevention may help adjust coaches and athletes’ attitudes towards implementation of injury prevention into daily routine. Conventional thinking by players and coaches alike seems to suggest that IPPs need to be specific to one’s sport to allow for performance enhancement. The systematic literature review aims to firstly determine the IPPs nature of exercises and whether they are specific to the sport or based on general conditioning. Secondly, can they demonstrate whether general, sports-specific or even mixed IPPs improve key performance indicators with the aim to better facilitate long-term implementation of these programs? Methods PubMed and Web of Science were electronically searched throughout March 2018. The inclusion criteria were randomized control trials, publication dates between Jan 2006 and Feb 2018, athletes (11–45 years), injury prevention programs and included predefined performance measures that could be categorized into balance, power, strength, speed/agility and endurance. The methodological quality of included articles was assessed with the Cochrane Collaboration assessment tools. Results Of 6619 initial findings, 22 studies met the inclusion criteria. In addition, reference lists unearthed a further 6 studies, making a total of 28. Nine studies used sports specific IPPs, eleven general and eight mixed prevention strategies. Overall, general programs ranged from 29–57% in their effectiveness across performance outcomes. Mixed IPPs improved in 80% balance outcomes but only 20–44% in others. Sports-specific programs led to larger scale improvements in balance (66%), power (83%), strength (75%), and speed/agility (62%). Conclusion Sports-specific IPPs have the strongest influence on most performance indices based on the significant improvement versus control groups. Other factors such as intensity, technical execution and compliance should be accounted for in future investigations in addition to exercise modality.

The ISPAInt Injury Prevention Programme for Youth Competitive Alpine Skiers: A Controlled 12-Month Experimental Study in a Real-World Training Setting

“…Typically, exercise-based injury prevention programmes aim at improving athletes’ neuromuscular and proprioceptive performance ( Mandelbaum et al, 2005 ). Effective prevention, however, should be based on sport- and age-specific programmes that consider the epidemiology, mechanisms, and contextual factors of the injuries of the athletes to be protected ( van Mechelen et al, 1992 ; Sugimoto et al, 2016 ; Plummer et al, 2019 ). Accordingly, real-world implementation factors should already be taken into consideration in both the development and evaluation phases of sports injury prevention programmes ( Bolling et al, 2018 ; O’brien et al, 2021 ).…”

How injury prevention programs are being structured and implemented worldwide: An international survey of sports physical therapists

“…For example, Huang et al identified that IPPs targeting ACL injuries could reduce these injury rates by 53% (Huang et al, 2020). However, it should be noted that the way these IPPs are constructed and implemented plays a significant role in its effectiveness (Plummer et al, 2019;Webster & Hewett, 2018;Wiggins et al, 2016).…”

The Recent Application of the OSTRC Boxing Injury Prevention Program among Boxers in the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries

“…The number of injuries affecting boxers' performance and their absenteeism often increased, in addition to the high cost of their treatment. A recently published systematic review reported that sports-specific injury prevention programs strongly influence most performance indices and result in large-scale improvements to balance (66%), power (83%), strength (75%), and speed/agility (62%) [27]. These findings reinforce the importance of implementing an injury prevention exercise program among boxers, which could reduce injuries and their consequences.…”