ACL injuries in female collegiate soccer players
A Randomized Controlled Trial to Prevent Noncontact Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injury in Female Collegiate Soccer Players. Julie Gilchrist, Bert R. Mandelbaum, Heidi Melancon, George W. Ryan, Holly J. Silvers, Letha Y. Griffin, Diane S. Watanabe, Randall W. Dick, and Jiri Dvorak. The American Journal of Sports Medicine, 36 (8) 2008.
This study tested whether an on-field warm-up program called Prevent Injury and Enhance Performance (PEP) Program can reduce non-contact ACL injuries. The PEP Program consists of warm-up, stretching, plyometrics and sport-specific agility exercises. The sample involved 61 NCAA Division I women's soccer teams with a total of 1435 athletes, who were divided into randomly assigned intervention or control groups (852 control athletes; 583 intervention). The athletes in the intervention group performed the PEP Program three times per week. Teams kept track of participation in practices and games and reported any knee injuries. "The overall anterior cruciate ligament injury rate among intervention athletes was 1.7 times less than in control athletes," representing a 41% decrease. Noncontact ACL "injury rate among intervention athletes was 3.3 times less than in the control athletes," a 70% decrease. The authors concluded that "implementation of an alternative warm-up program" like the PEP Program "may reduce the risk of noncontact ACL injuries in collegiate female soccer players."
Comments