Fitness- and Health-related Effects of a Sports Injury Prevention Program in Competitive Alpine Skiers

Balgrist University Hospital1 site in 1 country129 target enrollmentStarted: October 1, 2017Last updated: March 3, 2023

Conditions

Interventions

Trial Snapshot

Phase: Not Applicable
Status: Completed
Sponsor
Enrollment: 129
Locations: 1
Primary Endpoint: Change from baseline to 12 months axis-stability

Study Overview Study Design Eligibility Criteria Arms & Interventions Outcomes Investigators Sites Records & Identifiers Similar Trials

Study Overview

Brief 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:

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;
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

Study Type: Interventional
Allocation: Non Randomized
Intervention Model: Sequential
Primary Purpose: Prevention
Masking: None

Eligibility Criteria

Ages: 13 Years to 36 Years (Child, Adult)
Sex: All
Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Inclusion Criteria

•competitive athletes that are part of a Swiss-Ski development program
•Written informed consent by the participant (or parents)

Exclusion Criteria

•No written informed consent

Arms & Interventions

intervention

Experimental

preventative training program

Intervention: preventative training program (Other)

control

No Intervention

no such training