Fitness- and Health-related Effects of a Sports Injury Prevention Program in Competitive Alpine Skiers
Condition: Athletics
MeSH terms: Athletic Injuries
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      Overall Goal: Elaboration of an evidence-based, national prevention strategy to protect the
      health of competitive alpine skiers, with a particular focus on youth athletes.

      Background: Competitive alpine skiing has a relatively high injury risk. 60% of all athletes
      suffer from a severe knee injury in the early stages of their career, and 20% struggle with
      recurrent overuse problems of the knee and lower back.

      Research Aims: (1) to investigate the effects of a 12-month sports injury prevention program
      on training attitudes, eccentric hamstring strength, leg axis-/hip-/core-stability and
      general fitness in competitive alpine skiers; (2) to assess the effectiveness the
      aforementioned prevention program to lower the occurring health problems in competitive
      alpine skiers; (3) to identify different pain conditions (knee, back, no pain) based on data
      measured with smartphones; and (4) to investigate the agreement of self-reported
      questionnaire data with measured smartphone data and pain as an affecting factor.

      Methods: 12-month intervention a sports injury prevention program, a prospective health- and
      training/activity-monitoring, as well as assessments of eccentric hamstring strength, leg
      axis/hip/core stability and general fitness at baseline and follow-up.
    

Detailed description: 
      The primary objectives of this study are:

        1. to investigate the effects of a sports injury prevention program on train-ing attitudes,
           eccentric hamstring strength, leg axis-/hip-/core-stability and general fitness in
           competitive alpine skiers;

        2. to assess the effectiveness the prevention program to lower the occur-ring health
           problems (i.e. traumatic injuries, overuse injuries and illnesses) in competitive alpine
           skiers.

           The secondary objectives of this study are:

        3. to investigate the agreement between self-reported questionnaire data with unobtrusively
           measured smartphone data (i.e. sensor-based activity data) to monitor the prevention
           program;

        4. to identify athletes at risk for developing pain and injury based on digitally acquired
           data (questionnaires and activity sensor data).

      The primary study outcomes are the changes in training attitudes, maximal eccentric hamstring
      strength, leg axis-/hip-/core-stability, general fitness-related factors and the occurring
      health problems in competitive youth alpine skiers over a 12-month intervention period. These
      outcomes are assessed by established methods of strength testing, neuromuscular screening,
      and load- and health-monitoring.

      The secondary outcome is a smartphone enabled training and injury prevention program for
      skiing athletes.

      Study design: Medical Training Therapy (MTT) Intervention with historical control Group

      Methods and procedures:

      Fitness- and health-related factors are assessed before and after a 12-month observational
      period and before and after a 12-month preventative training intervention period.

      Maximal eccentric hamstring strength is tested by using the NordBord (Inc. VALD Performance,
      AU).

      Leg axis-/hip-/core-stability related measures are assessed by biomechani-cal measurement
      technologies, such as Vicon Vero (Inc. Vicon Motion Sys-tems Ltd, UK), mobile 2D force plates
      (MLD, Inc. SP Sportdiagnosegeräte GmbH, AT), mobile 3D force plates (Inc. Kistler Group, SUI)
      and surface electromyography (EMG) (aktos, Inc. Myon AG, SUI).

      General fitness-related factors are quantified by the Swiss-Ski Power Test (incl. the tasks
      "swiss cross", "push up", "5-jump", "standing long jump", "twist test", "obstacle course",
      "high box jump" and "12' run").

      The athletes' training loads/activities are monitored using custom question-naires and
      measurements obtained through a smartphone (i.e. activity sen-sors).

      The athletes' health is monitored by the OSTRC questionnaire. The athletes' biological
      age/maturity offset is estimated according to the non-invasive, anthropometric-based method
      of Mirwald et al.

      Intervention: The intervention (i.e. the preventative training program) includes a specific,
      complementary training of leg-, hip- and core-strength/stability and will be conducted over
      an intervention period of 12 months. The control interven-tion, compromises no such training
      program.
    

Intervention name(s): preventative training program
Intervention type(s): Other
Intervention description(s): complementary training of leg-, hip- and core-strength/stability
Allocation: Non-Randomized
Intervention model: Sequential Assignment
Intervention model description: Intervention with historical control group
Masking: None (Open Label)
Primary purpose: Prevention