Preventing injuries in youth sport through an interdisciplinary and theory-based approach

Organized sport is the main cause for injuries among Norwegian youth – despite strategic efforts to protect athlete health by the governing body: the Norwegian confederation of sports, and its handball and football federations. With this project, we will develop and evaluate a new approach to sports injury prevention, namely a coach-led program that focuses on sociocultural, biomedical, and behavioral factors that put youth at risk for injury. The project is a collaboration between four leading research centers (Norway/Sweden/UK) from different fields. With the combined knowledge from sports sociology, biomedicine, and health behavior, we will develop a new understanding of how we can prevent first-time and recurrent injury in youth handball and football. We will perform a series of studies with a range of scientific methods (qualitative, quantitative, research synthesis), coupled with expert and user knowledge, to develop and test a novel coach-led program and the knowledge on which it is based. If the program successfully reduces injury, the partnering sports organizations will follow a formal strategy to integrate the program in Norwegian youth handball and football.

The Norwegian Institute of Public Health reports that organized sport is the main cause for injuries among youth – despite strategic efforts to protect athlete health by the governing body: the Norwegian confederation of sports, and its handball and football federations. This project centers on the development and evaluation of a new approach to sports injury prevention, namely a coach-led program targeting the sociocultural, biomedical, and behavioral factors that determine injury risk and injury-preventive behavior. The proposed project will foster collaboration between these sports organizations and four leading research centers (Norway/Sweden/UK) to promote interdisciplinary integration of youth sports research. Our primary objective is to develop and evaluate a coach-led program, based on interdisciplinary program theory from sports sociology, biomedicine, and health behavior, to prevent first-time and recurrent injury in youth handball and football. We extend the Oslo Sports Trauma Research Center’s 20-year biomedical research program on epidemiology, risk factors, injury mechanisms, and interventions, by forging new collaborations with sports sociology and health behavior experts. Building on state of the art, the project uses a range of methods (qualitative, quantitative, research synthesis) coupled with expert and user knowledge, to develop and test program theory. Beyond the interdisciplinary program theory, two distinctive features are 1) an effectiveness trial with male and female youth handball and football players and 2) the world-leading dissemination network Skadefri. If the intervention is effective, the sports organizations will follow a formal implementation strategy to integrate the program in Norwegian youth handball and football. Our research approach focuses on end-user benefits and is scalable to other sports settings, emphasizing the potential to improve the health of the 75% of Norwegian youth who participate in organized sport.