DOI: 10.5061/dryad.kwh70rzcc
title: A neurocognitive approach to prevent non-contact anterior cruciate ligament injury in football: A scoping review

description: Background - Non-contact anterior cruciate ligament injuries (NC-ACLI) are
 becoming more common in football due to the involvement of actions such as
 cutting, landing, pivoting, changing directions, and jumping that expose
 the knee to angular stresses, rotational motions, and anterior translation
 force. These risk factors are addressed in the current injury prevention
 programs(IPP) but have shown to be less effective in further lowering
 NC-ACLI risk. The missing piece in these IPPs is their inability to target
 neurocognitive risk factors when a relationship between cognitive
 competencies and the mechanism of NC-ACLI is evidenced. This gap serves as
 the basis for the review. Purpose – To map the literature that has
 investigated the application of neurocognitive training (NCT) for the
 prevention of NC-ACLI in footballers. Study Design – Scoping Review
 Methods – A broad eligibility criteria was applied through population,
 concept, and context framework. Restrictions were applied to language
 (English) and age (&gt;11 years), as the incidence rises with age. 39
 databases and 4 websites were searched for literature until August 12,
 2023. Four studies were included after screening the 144 studies
 found.  Each study underwent quality assessment. The data was
 extracted and synthesised using data chart. Results – The reviewed studies
 provided comprehensive details on components of NCT with methods and
 provider of intervention, outcome of NCT application and the cognitive
 skills targeted, along with the theoretical explanations for their
 outcomes. The limited number of included studies despite broad eligibility
 criteria, indicates the emerging nature of research in this domain,
 corroborated by recent publication dates of included literature.
 Conclusion – This review provides baseline information on NCT in the
 prevention of NC-ACLI in football and attempts to guide future research.
description: A literature search was conducted in approximately 24
 physiotherapy databases, 10 sports sciences and rehabilitation databases
 and 5 neuroscience databases including SPORTDiscus, COCHRANE, PEDro,
 SCOPUS, PubMed, and MEDLINE. Keywords like ‘anterior cruci* ligament *’,
 ‘neurocogni*’ training’ or ‘cogniti* intervention’, ‘football’ or
 ‘soccer’, and ‘injury prevent*’  were utilised. In an attempt to retrieve
 most literature on the topic, each neurocognitive components listed in
 DSM-V criteria were used as search words. Additionally, the types of
 neurocognitive approaches applied to other sports were used as search
 terms replacing ‘neurocognitive’ like Visuomotor Reaction Time, Self-Talk,
 Attention changing, Stress Management, Mindfulness, and Imagery, not to
 miss any literature. Grey literature was searched for on Google Scholar
 and Nottingham University (NU Search) using the same search terms. This
 search was conducted to look for all the relevant evidence published or
 unpublished from the year of the first available evidence on each
 electronic database and registry until August 12, 2023. In order to uphold
 the reliability of the review, studies written in English were only
 considered. This choice was made due to the potential for software-based
 translations to alter the intended meaning of the text, which could
 ultimately have a significant impact on the outcomes of the scoping
 review. Furthermore, the time-consuming task of manually translating
 documents was avoided to ensure efficiency and timely completion of the
 review. Following the search, all references were
 uploaded to EndNote X9 (Clarivate Analytics, PA, USA) and duplicates were
 removed. The articles were then screened for inclusion by their titles and
 abstracts and sought for retrieval. Later on, the full text of the
 selected articles was screened against the eligibility criteria.
 A critical appraisal of the evidence was conducted to ensure the
 quality of this scoping review. Full-text articles were appraised using
 checklists available for the respective study designs and were rated as
 low, moderate, or good quality study. However, the studies of all levels
 of evidence and quality were eligible for inclusion.
 Data from eligible studies were extracted using a data
 chart.
description: # A Neurocognitive Approach to Prevent Non-Contact Anterior Cruciate
 Ligament Injury in Football - A Scoping Review.
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.kwh70rzcc](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.kwh70rzcc) **List of Abbreviations** | JBI | Joanna Briggs Institute | | :--------- | :----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | OSF | Open Science Framework | | FIFA | Fédération Internationale de Football Association | | ACL | Anterior Cruciate Ligament | | ACLI | ACL injury | | IPP | Injury Prevention Programs | | NC-ACLI | Non-Contact ACL Injury | | NCT | Neurocognitive Training | | DSM-V | Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 5th edition | | PRISMA-ScR | Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews | | PRISMA | Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses | | CASP | Critical Appraisal Skills Programme | | MRI | Magnetic Resonance Imaging | | GRADE | Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation | | vGRF | Vertical Ground Reaction Force | | PEP | Prevent injury and Enhance Performance | | D | Dominant | | ND | Non-Dominant | ## Sharing/Access information Data was derived from the following sources: * [https://doi.org/10.1123/jsr.2013-0138](https://doi.org/10.1123/jsr.2013-0138) * [https://pure.rug.nl/ws/portalfiles/portal/42772045/Chapter_5.pdf](https://pure.rug.nl/ws/portalfiles/portal/42772045/Chapter_5.pdf) * [https://doi.org/10.1519/jsc.0000000000004201](https://doi.org/10.1519/jsc.0000000000004201) * [https://doi.org/10.1080/02640414.2023.2193451](https://doi.org/10.1080/02640414.2023.2193451)