The Effects of a School-Based Injury Prevention Program on Injury Incidence in Young Females

Purpose To examine the effects of a progressive injury prevention (IP) program, embedded into school curriculum, on injury rates in young females. Methods One hundred and three physical education (PE) students [mean ± SD; age = 14.0 ± 0.6 years; height = 162.6 ± 5.8 cm; mass = 57.4 ± 9.8 kg, intervention (INT) n = 53, control (CON) n = 50] from a girls’ secondary school participated in this study. The INT group (competitive athletes) completed a 23-week (three phase) IP program whereas the CON group continued normal PE class. An online questionnaire recorded training and competition exposure and self-reported injuries. Results The INT group reported significantly more weekly training and competition hours than the CON group (4.15 ± 4.78 vs. 2.19 ± 3.22, P < 0.001 training hours and 0.77 ± 1.42 vs. 0.55 ± 1.10, P < 0.001 competition hours). There was no difference in any injury rate between the two groups. There was a significant reduction in injury rate between phase 1 and phase 3 of the IP program for the INT group [injury rate ratio = 0.63 (95% CI = 0.41–0.96); P = 0.02]. Injury rates in competition were higher than in training (40.1 and 36.3 injuries per 1000 h competition vs. 13.7 and 9.5 injuries per 1000 h training). Conclusion Although there was no difference in injury rates between groups, the IP program did significantly reduce rates with-in the INT group over the duration of the school year and may be protective against increased injury incidence for young females engaged in competitive sports.