Title

Incidence and Risk Factors for Injury in Non-Elite Australian Football

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2004

Abstract

This paper identifies the risk and protective factors for injury in non-elite Australian Football. Five hundred and thirty five non-elite Australian footballers completed a baseline questionnaire at the commencement of the 1997 preseason. Participants were telephoned each month during the 1997 and 1998 playing seasons to provide details of their exposure at training and games and any injury experiences in the previous four weeks. The incidence of injury in this study was 24 injuries per 1000 player hours. The risk factors for injury were identified as: not wearing sports-specific football boots (IRR 1.40, 95% CI 1.03–1.90); an existing back pathology (IRR 1.29, 95% CI 1.10–1.51); excessive foot pronation (IRR 1.29, 95% CI 1.07–1.56); and extroverted behaviour (IRR 1.01, 95% CI 1.00–1.03). Cooling down after training (IRR 0.95, 95% CI 0.90–0.99) and not being injured in the previous 12 months (IRR 0.73, 95% CI 0.61–0.88) were found to be protective against injury. This study found that there was a high risk of injury associated with playing Australian Football at a community level. Further research is required to gain an understanding of the mechanisms by which the identified risk factors influence injury risk in community level Australian Football.

MacManus, A., Stevenson, M., Finch, C. F., Elliott, B., Hamer, P., Lower, A., and Bulsara, M. (2004). Incidence and Risk Factors for Injury in Non-Elite Australian Football. Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, Vol. 7 (3), p. 384-391.

DOI: 10.1016/S1440-2440(04)80033-1

ISSN: 1440-2440

Comments

Due to copyright restrictions this article is unavailable for download.

Staff and Students of the University of Notre Dame Australia may access the full text of this article here

This article may be accessed from the publisher here

The Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport may be accessed from the National Library of Australia here


Link to Full Text

Share

COinS