The Nordic Football Injury Audit: higher injury rates for professional football clubs with third-generation artificial turf at their home venue

Abstract

Background: Previously, no difference in acute injury rate has been found when playing

Injury recurrence is lower at the highest professional football level than at national and amateur levels: does sports medicine and sports physiotherapy deliver?

“…Similarly, injury incidence in the Swedish premier division has shown no decreasing trend over the past decade 3 21 24 29. One study even reported a gradual increase in acute injury incidence between 2002 and 2007 in the Norwegian premier division 18.…”

“…Forty-three teams from 16 countries participating in the UEFA Elite Club Injury Study (UEFA-ECIS) were followed over a varying number of seasons (range 1–14) between 2001 and 2015 (240 team-seasons) 19. The second ‘Elite’ cohort includes 19 teams from the Swedish premier division (Allsvenskan) being followed over a varying number of seasons (range 1–9) between 2001 and 2011 (82 team-seasons) 3 21 24 29. The third ‘Amateur’ cohort includes 10 teams from the control group of a previous randomised controlled trial followed over one season in 2003 (10 team-seasons) 10.…”

Role of illness in male professional football: not a major contributor to time loss

“…The development of the UEFA Elite Club Injury Study (UEFA ECIS),6 and the data collection, have been described previously 7. From inception to the 2010 season, only injuries have been included in the surveillance, but starting from January 2011, illnesses were also recorded in the Norwegian and Swedish cohorts, and from July 2011 in the English Premier League and UEFA cohorts.…”

Research on products such as artificial turf is potentially exposed to the same types of industry bias as research on pharmaceuticals

“…This issue of BJSM contains two additional studies10 11 that cast doubt on whether new generation artificial turf is safe in all circumstances. One of these10 adds to a growing evidence base that new generation artificial turf leads to higher risk of injury in American football.…”