152 Injury surveillance in junior Australian football — results from the junior Australian football safety study

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Injury surveillance in junior Australian Football - results from the Junior Australian Football Safety Study C. Finch~ & B. Gabbe2 ~NSW Injury Risk Management Research Centre 2Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, Monash University

Game development of Australian football relies on an ongoing recruitment of players through the junior ranks. The perception of Australian football as a safe sport for junior participants is a key factor in encouraging participation and recruiting new players to the game. Whilst the junior game has been shown to be relatively safe, the figures are over 10 years old and there is a lack of quality information about current injury rates and experiences of junior participants which are necessary for guiding game development and injury research. The aim of this study is to establish the incidence of injury and types of injuries sustained by junior football players. During the 2004 season, players from U9 to U18 teams in both Melbourne and Sydney are being followed prospectively. Participation data (in hours) and injury surveillance information is being collected for the full season. This talk will present the results of this study. As data collection is currently underway, it is not possible to include any results in this abstract. Nonetheless, this study will allow the calculation of injury rates which can be used to establish the change in injury incidence over the past 10 years and will enable comparisons with other sports. The findings will also be used to guide injury prevention research in junior football.

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Can physical training programs reduce injuries in elite junior Australian Rules football? Evaluation of an injury ~revention strategy Scase ~, J. Cook ~, M. Makdissi2 & B. Gabbe3 ~La Trobe University 2University of Melbourne 3Monash University

Evaluation of an injury prevention strategyThe effect of a preseason physical training program teaching landing, falling and recovery skills was studied to evaluate its effect on the injury profile of junior elite Australian Rules football (ARF) players. Seven hundred and twenty three male players participating in the national junior under 18 elite competition (TAC cup) were studied prospectively over two consecutive football seasons. Three teams comprised the intervention group (n = 114) and thirteen teams comprised the control group (n = 609). Baseline tests of landing skills revealed there were no significant differences between the groups prior to intervention. The eight session intervention program taught players six landing, falling and recovery skills, which were considered to be fundamental for safe landing in typical ARF game situations. Midseason video evaluation of the same subset of intervention and control players revealed that; both teams had improved in landing skills but the intervention group improved significantly more than the control group (p=.001). The intervention had a number of significant effects upon injury profile including; longer time to ill;st injury for the intervention group (95%CI 6.45-8.47, p=.04), significantly fewer non-contact injuries (95% CI 2.11-2.33, p <.01) and more specifically fewer injuries resulting from landing and falls (95% CI -.73-.21, p <.025). There were fewer players unavailable due to injury per round in the intervention group; however this did not reach statistical significance (p=.10). There were no significant differences between the groups for; injury incidence, prevalence, injury nature / diagnosis, injury site or injury severity (p>.05). The results demonstrate that landing can be trained and provide evidence for a positive relationship between improving landing and falling skills in elite junior ARF players and injury prevention. 89