615 MEP068 – Injury risk factors in track and field athletes: analysis of data from 320 athletes over one season

AbstractBackground The current knowledge of athletics-related injury risk factors, other than sex, age and previous injury, is limited.Objective To investigate which factors, observed before and during an athletics season, were associated with time-to-injury complaints leading to participation restriction in athletics (ICPR).Design Cohort study with 39-week follow-up.Setting Secondary analysis of data from the control group of an randomized controlled trial.Participants 320 female and male competitive athletics athletes.Main Outcomes Measures The primary outcome was the time in weeks to the first ICPR. Potential risk factors were collected 1) at baseline: sex, age, height, body mass, discipline, usual duration of athletics training and non-specific sports training, ICPR in the preceding season (yes/no), ICPR at baseline (yes/no); 2) weekly during the season: duration and intensity of athletics training and competition, and of non-specific sports training, subjective fitness state, sleep duration, and illness (yes/no). We performed multivariable analyses using Cox regression models.Results Of the 320 athletes 138 (43%) reported at least one ICPR during the period of the season. The multivariable analyses revealed that the risk of ICPR at any given time was significantly higher in athletes with a pre-existing ICPR at baseline (HRR=1.90, 95%CI 1.15–3.15; p=0.012), and lower in athletes with a higher subjective fitness state (HRR=0.63, 95%CI 0.55–0.73; p<0.001) and with at least one illness during the season (HRR=0.42, 95%CI 0.29–0.62; p<0.001).Conclusions Our results provide new insights into injury risk factors in athletics, that could help for potential injury risk reduction strategies. These could be to explore the presence of a pre-existing injury at the start of the season and to monitor the subjective fitness state and illnesses occurrence during the season.