Kaplan Y.1
1Sport Medicine Institute, Jerusalem, Israel
Background: American flag football is a fast growing sport world wide with over 30 million players regularly participating. No previous research has investigated the epidemiology nor has an injury prevention program been instituted.
Purpose: This original prospective cohort study was conducted in an attempt to significantly reduce the incidence and the severity of injuries in an intervention cohort as compared to a two-season historical cohort, and to provide recommendations to the International Federation of Football (IFAF) pertaining to prevention measures to make the game safer.
Methods: 1260 amateur male (mean age: 20.4 ± 3.9yrs) and 244 female (mean age: 18.5 ± 1.7 yrs) players participated in the study. Four prevention measures were implemented: The no-pocket rule, self-fitting mouth guards, ankle braces (for those players with recurrent ankle sprains) and an injury treatment information brochure.
All time-loss injuries sustained in game sessions were recorded by the off-the-field medical personnel and followed up by a more detailed phone injury surveillance questionnaire.
Results: There was an 88% reduction in the total number of injuries, and a significant reduction in the incidence rate and incidence proportion between the intervention cohort as compared to the historical cohort (P 0.001). There was a trend towards a reduction in the number of injuries in all body parts, reaching statistical significance in hand/wrist injuries related to the use of pockets (p 0.001) , as well as the severity of mild-moderate injuries (p 0.05).
Conclusion(s): This study provided evidence that hand/wrist injuries can be significantly reduced in flag football.
Implications: This study provided evidence that hand/wrist injuries can be significantly reduced in flag football.
Funding acknowledgements: There was no funding.
Topic: Sport & sports injuries
Ethics approval: Ethics approval was obtained.
All authors, affiliations and abstracts have been published as submitted.
