The relationship between team-level and league-level injury rate, type and location in a professional football league. Issue 7 (July 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Lu, Donna; McCall, Alan; Jones, Mark; Duffield, Rob
• Is Part Of: Journal of science and medicine in sport. Volume 25:Issue 7(2022)
• Page Start: 564
• Page End: 568
• Publication Date: 2022-07
• Subjects: Soccer -- Football -- Injury incidence -- Injury epidemiology -- Ecological study; Sports sciences -- Periodicals; Sports medicine -- Periodicals; Exercise -- Physiological aspects -- Periodicals; Sports -- physiology -- Periodicals; Sports Medicine -- Periodicals; Sportgeneeskunde; 617.102705
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jsams.2022.03.017
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1440-2440

Abstract

Abstract: Objectives: To describe the relationship between team- and league-level variability of injury rate, type, and location over 6 seasons in professional Australian football (A-League). Design: Prospective epidemiological study. Methods: Injury incidence, type and location were collected from all A-League teams (n = 10) for 6 consecutive seasons (2012/13 to 2017/18) via a standardised injury surveillance system. Intra-class correlation and coefficient of variation were calculated to assess the between-season variability of injury measures for each team. To determine the relationship between team-level injury variability on league-level injury rates, Marginal Coefficient of Determination to Coefficient of Determination were then calculated from generalised linear mixed models. This allowed determination between season trends, where league-level injury incidence, type- and location rates as the response variables, season as the predictor variable and teams as random intercepts. Results: The majority of teams showed poor to moderate correlations for between-season injury rates (intra-class correlation: r = 0.319–0.831), but also showed low–moderate variability between-seasons for injury rate (coefficient of variation 34 ± 22%). League injury rates were stable, though were reduced in 2015/16 compared to 2012/13 (β = 0.738; p = 0.011). Joint/Ligament injuries had coinciding significant reduction in 2015/16 (p = 0.001). The model variance showed the reduction of Joint/Ligament injuries was league-wide rather than team-specific (Marginal Coefficient of Determintion = 0.23; Coefficient of Determination = 0.23). Conclusions: In the A-League, low between-season injury rate variability from teams contributed to a stable league-level injury trend over seasons. A reduction in league injury rate in 2015/16 was mirrored by league-wide Joint/Ligament injury rates, without specific effect by team.