Previous and current injury and not training and competition factors were associated with future injury prevalence across a season in adolescent elite athletes

Introduction: Understanding the factors associated with different injury prevalence profiles in young athletes is needed for the design of tailored injury prevention programs. Objectives: To explore the factors associated with different levels of injury prevalence in adolescent elite athletes. Methods: A total of 389 adolescent elite athletes (age range 15-19 years), participating in 16 different sports, were monitored repeatedly over 52 weeks using the Oslo Sports Trauma Research Center Overuse Injury Questionnaire. The athletes were grouped in three injury categories: (1) "Low injury"; (2) "Medium injury"; and (3) "High injury," based on the proportion of times the athletes reported substantial injury over the season. Results: Logistic and multinomial regression identified substantial injury the first week (odds ratio (OR) 53.9, 95% confidence interval (CI) 7.1-407.7), and an interaction between sex and previous injury (OR 3.9, 95% CI 1.1-12.4) as significant factors that increased the odds of belonging in the High injury compared to the Low injury group. A female athlete with a previous injury the last 12 months had a higher probability of belonging in the High injury group compared to a male athlete.No significant (p > .05) difference in training, sleep, or competition exposure was found across the injury category. Conclusion: Current substantial injury and previous injury were strongly associated with the most injured athletes. Coaches and medical team should consider limiting the injured athlete competition exposure.