CLINICS 2011;66(10):1707-1712 CLINICAL SCIENCE DOI:10.1590/S1807-59322011001000007 The Brazilian Football Association (CBF) model for epidemiological studies on professional soccer player injuries Gustavo Gonc¸alves Arliani,I Paulo Santoro Belangero,I Jose Luiz Runco,II Moise´ s CohenI I Centro de Traumatologia do Esporte (CETE) - (DOT-UNIFESP/EPM)-Departamento de Ortopedia e Traumatologia da Universidade Federal de Sa˜ o Paulo/SP, Brasil. II Brazilian Football Association and Clube de Regatas do Flamengo’s Medical Department Head, Rio de Janeiro/RJ, Brazil. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to establish a national methodological model for epidemiological studies on professional soccer player injuries and to describe the numerous relevant studies previously published on this topic. INTRODUCTION: The risk of injury in professional soccer is high. However, previous studies of injury risk in Brazil and other countries have been characterized by large variations in study design and data collection methods as well as definitions of injury, standardized diagnostic criteria, and recovery times. METHODS: A system developed by the Union of European Football for epidemiological studies on professional soccer players is being used as a starting point to create a methodological model for the Brazilian Football Association. To describe the existing studies on professional soccer player injuries, we developed a search strategy to identify relevant epidemiological studies. We included the Latin American and Caribbean Center on Health Sciences and Medline databases in our study. RESULTS: We considered 60 studies from Medline and 16 studies from the Latin American and Caribbean Center on Health Sciences in the final analysis. Twelve studies were selected for final inclusion in this review: seven from the Latin American and Caribbean Center on Health Sciences and five from Medline. We identified a lack of uniformity in the study design, data collection methods, injury definitions, standardized diagnostic criteria, and the definition of recovery time. Based on the information contained within these articles, we developed a model for epidemiological studies for the Brazilian Football Association. CONCLUSIONS: There is no uniform model for epidemiological studies of professional soccer injuries. Here, we propose a novel model to be applied for epidemiological studies of professional soccer player injuries in Brazil and throughout the world. KEYWORDS: Soccer; Football; Athletic Injuries; Epidemiology; Epidemiologic Studies. Arliani GG, Belangero PS, Runco JL, Cohen M. The Brazilian Football Association (CBF) model for epidemiological studies on professional soccer player injuries. Clinics. 2011;66(10):1707-1712. Received for publication on May 24, 2011; First review completed on June 15, 2011; Accepted for publication on June 19, 2011 E-mail: ggarliani@hotmail.com Tel.: 55 11 55716621 INTRODUCTION Soccer is undoubtedly the most popular sport in the world with 200,000 professional athletes and 240 million amateur players globally; approximately 80% of these players are male.1,2 Studies have shown that soccer players have a 1000- fold higher risk of injury than industrial workers.3 As a sport, soccer has undergone many changes in recent years, mainly due to increased physical demands. This has led to increased injury risk. In Brazil, athletes are more Copyright 2011 CLINICS – This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non- commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. No potential conflict of interest was reported. prone to injury because of their extensive training and the large number of games they play.4 The incidence of soccer injuries is estimated to be approximately 10-15 injuries/ 1000 hours of practice. However, this statistic varies widely among studies depending on the injury definitions used and each study’s design.5 Several groups of researchers around the world have initiated research aimed at assessing the incidence and causes of soccer injuries. Currently, the goal is to reduce injury incidence and increase athlete safety. However, to achieve this goal, we must develop a thorough knowledge of the epidemiology of soccer injuries. Only then can we identify the problems that lead to soccer injuries.6 A major problem with the epidemiological assessment of soccer injuries is the inconsistency observed between studies. For example, injury definitions and methods for data collection and recording are often quite different between 1707