Published 9 December 2008, doi:10.1136/bmj.a2469
Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a2469

Research

Comprehensive warm-up programme to prevent injuries in young female footballers: cluster randomised controlled trial

Torbjørn Soligard, PhD student1, Grethe Myklebust, associate professor1, Kathrin Steffen, research fellow1, Ingar Holme, professor1, Holly Silvers, physical therapist2, Mario Bizzini, physical therapist3, Astrid Junge, associate professor3, Jiri Dvorak, professor3, Roald Bahr, professor1, Thor Einar Andersen, associate professor1

1 Oslo Sports Trauma Research Centre, Norwegian School of Sport Sciences, PO Box 4014 Ullevaal Stadion, 0806 Oslo, Norway, 2 Santa Monica Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine Research Foundation, 1919 Santa Monica Blvd, Suite 350, Santa Monica, CA 90404 USA, 3 FIFA Medical Assessment and Research Centre, Schulthess Clinic, Lengghalde 2, CH-8008 Zurich, Switzerland

Correspondence to: T Soligard torbjorn.soligard{at}nih.no

Objective To examine the effect of a comprehensive warm-up programme designed to reduce the risk of injuries in female youth football.

Design Cluster randomised controlled trial with clubs as the unit of randomisation.

Setting 125 football clubs from the south, east, and middle of Norway (65 clusters in the intervention group; 60 in the control group) followed for one league season (eight months).

Participants 1892 female players aged 13-17 (1055 players in the intervention group; 837 players in the control group).

Intervention A comprehensive warm-up programme to improve strength, awareness, and neuromuscular control during static and dynamic movements.

Main outcome measure Injuries to the lower extremity (foot, ankle, lower leg, knee, thigh, groin, and hip).

Results During one season, 264 players had relevant injuries: 121 players in the intervention group and 143 in the control group (rate ratio 0.71, 95% confidence interval 0.49 to 1.03). In the intervention group there was a significantly lower risk of injuries overall (0.68, 0.48 to 0.98), overuse injuries (0.47, 0.26 to 0.85), and severe injuries (0.55, 0.36 to 0.83).

Conclusion Though the primary outcome of reduction in lower extremity injury did not reach significance, the risk of severe injuries, overuse injuries, and injuries overall was reduced. This indicates that a structured warm-up programme can prevent injuries in young female football players.

Trial registration ISRCTN10306290 [controlled-trials.com] .


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