Differential Biomechanical Effects of an ACL Injury Prevention Program in Women's Basketball and Soccer Players
Condition: Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injury
MeSH terms: Wounds and Injuries; Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injuries
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      Anterior cruciate ligament injury programs are less successful in women's basketball than
      soccer players, yet the reason for this discrepancy is unknown. Thus, this study will recruit
      high school aged girl's basketball and soccer players, randomized teams into control and
      experimental groups, administer an ACL injury prevention program in the experimental group
      and compare the two groups on their lower extremity biomechanics before and after completion
      of the program. Biomechanical analyses will help determine the extent to which women's
      basketball and soccer players respond differently to a uniform injury prevention program, and
      whether this prevention program provides an adequate stimulus to improve lower extremity
      biomechanics during basketball-specific tasks.
    

Detailed description: 
      Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury prevention programs are considerably less successful
      in women's basketball than women's soccer. Women's basketball and soccer are each
      characterized by distinct sport-specific demands, where women's basketball players perform
      significantly more frequent jumping (2- and 1-legged landings) and frontal plane movements
      than women's soccer players. Despite varying sport-specific demands, ACL injury prevention
      programs have been uniformly administered in both sports, and emphasize improving high-risk
      biomechanics during 2-legged sagittal plane tasks. As such, they may not provide the
      appropriate stimulus to reduce ACL injury risk during the high-risk demands associated with
      women's basketball. To date, the differential biomechanical adaptations that result from ACL
      injury prevention programs in women's basketball and soccer have never been investigated.

      This study will use a cluster randomized controlled trial using a repeated measures design.
      Participants will be randomized (by team) in to control and intervention groups. Participants
      in the control group will be asked to continue their normal daily and athletic activities
      (practices, games) without participating any distinct injury prevention training.
      Participants in the intervention group will complete at 6 week ACL injury prevention program
      previously described in the literature as being effective at reducing ACL injury risk. The
      prevention program lasts 20-25 minutes in duration and will take place as a warm-up prior to
      any practice. The frequency will depend solely on the number of practices each team holds
      throughout the given 6-week time period. A member of the research team plans to be at each
      intervention session. All participants will complete pre- and post-testing approximately 1
      week before the onset and after the completion of the prevention program, respectively. As
      stated previously, all pre- and post-testing will be performed at the High Point University
      Human Biomechanics and Physiology Laboratory.

      The following are Specific Aims and Hypotheses. Specific Aim 1. To determine the extent to
      which women's basketball and soccer players employ distinct lower extremity movement
      strategies during sagittal and frontal plane jump landing tasks.

      Hypothesis 1. Prior to training, women's basketball athletes will exhibit no significant
      differences in high-risk hip and knee kinematics, but will generate higher hip and knee joint
      moments during jump landing activities than women's soccer players.

      Specific Aim 2. To determine the response of women's basketball and soccer athletes to a
      6-week ACL injury prevention program, as measured by changes in multi-planar hip and knee
      biomechanics of jump landings during sagittal and frontal plane jump landing tasks.

      Hypothesis 1. After 6 weeks of training, high-risk biomechanics will improve to a larger
      extent during sagittal plane than frontal plane jump landing tasks.

      Hypothesis 2. After 6 weeks of training, there will be no significant differences in
      biomechanical changes in women's basketball compared to women's soccer players.
    

Intervention name(s): Neuromuscular Prevention Program
Intervention type(s): Other
Intervention description(s): Participants in the intervention group will complete at 6 week ACL injury prevention program previously described in the literature as being effective at reducing ACL injury risk. The prevention program lasts 20-25 minutes in duration and will take place as a warm-up prior to any practice. The frequency will depend solely on the number of practices each team holds throughout the given 6-week time period.
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)
Primary purpose: Prevention