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Sports injury prevention programmes from the sports physical therapist's perspective: An international expert Delphi approach
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Sports injury prevention programmes from the sports physical therapist's perspective: An international expert Delphi approach

Luciana De Michelis Mendonça, Joke Schuermans, Sander Denolf, Christopher Napier, Natália F.N. Bittencourt, Andrés Romanuk, Igor Tak, Kristian Thorborg, Mario Bizzini, Carlo Ramponi, …
Physical therapy in sport, Vol.55, pp.146-154
05/2022
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ptsp.2022.04.002
PMID: 35421834

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14 Times Cited - Web of Science

Abstract

Objective: To provide consensus on how to plan, organize and implement exercise-based injury prevention program (IPP) in sports. Design: Delphi. Setting: LimeSurvey platform. Participants: Experienced sports physical therapists from the International Federation of Sports Physical Therapy member countries. Main outcome measures: Factors related to sports IPP planning, organization and implementation. Results: We included 305 participants from 32 countries. IPP planning should be based on an athlete's injury history, on pre-season screening results, and on injury rates (respectively, 98%, 92%, 89% agreement). In total 97% participants agreed that IPP organization should depend on the athlete's age, 93% on the competition level, and 93% on the availability of low-cost materials. It was agreed that IPP should mainly be implemented in warm-up sessions delivered by the head or strength/conditioning coach, with physical training sessions and individual physical therapy sessions (respectively, 94%, 92%, 90% agreement). Conclusion: Strong consensus was reached on (1) IPP based on the athlete's injury history, pre-season screening and evidence-based sports-specific injury rates; (2) IPP organization based on the athlete's age, competition level, and the availability of low-cost materials and (3) IPP implementation focussing on warm-up sessions implemented by the strength/conditioning coach, and/or individual prevention sessions by the physical therapist.

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