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Int J Sports Med 2022; 43(12): 1052-1060
DOI: 10.1055/a-1843-6533
Clinical Sciences

French Athletics Stakeholders’ Perceptions of Relevance and Expectations on Injury Prevention

Pascal Edouard
1   Univ Lyon, UJM-Saint-Etienne, Inter-university Laboratory of Human Movement Biology, EA 7424, F-42023, Saint-Etienne, France
2   Department of Clinical and Exercise Physiology, Sports Medicine Unit, University Hospital of Saint-Etienne, Faculty of Medicine, Saint-Etienne, France
3   European Athletics Medical & Anti Doping Commission, European Athletics Association (EAA), Lausanne, Switzerland
,
Alexis Ruffault
4   French Institute of Sport (INSEP), Laboratory Sport, Expertise and Performance (EA 7370), Paris, France
5   Unité de Recherche interfacultaire Santé et Société (URiSS), Université de Liège, Liège, Belgium
,
Caroline Bolling
6   Amsterdam Collaboration on Health & Safety in Sports (ACHSS), Department of Public and Occupational Health, Amsterdam UMC, VU University, Amsterdam Movement Sciences, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
,
Laurent Navarro
7   Mines Saint-Etienne, Univ Lyon, Univ Jean Monnet, INSERM, U 1059 Sainbiose, Centre CIS, F-42023 Saint-Etienne France
,
Simon Martin
8   Laboratoire Adaptations Physiologiques à l’Exercice et Réadaptation à l’Effort (APERE), Université Picardie Jules Verne, Amiens, France
9   Center of Research on Welfare Health and Sport, Halmstad University, Halmstad, Sweden
,
Frédéric Depiesse
10   Clinalliance Villiers sur Orge et Institut Mutualiste de Montsouris, Paris, France
,
Rasmus Oestergaard Nielsen
11   Department of Public Health, Aarhus University, Denmark
12   Research Unit for General Practice, Aarhus, Denmark
,
Evert Verhagen
6   Amsterdam Collaboration on Health & Safety in Sports (ACHSS), Department of Public and Occupational Health, Amsterdam UMC, VU University, Amsterdam Movement Sciences, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
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Abstract

This study aimed to explore how stakeholders in athletics perceive the relevance of injury prevention, determine their communication preferences, and describe their expectations regarding injury prevention. We conducted a cross-sectional study using an exploratory online survey with high-level athletes (i. e. listed by the French ministry of sports), non-high-level athletes (i. e. all competitive level except high-level athletes), coaches, and health professionals licensed with the French Federation of Athletics. The survey was composed of three parts regarding stakeholder’s characteristics (4 questions), perceived relevance (2 questions), communication preferences and expectations (3 questions) towards injury prevention. There were 2,864 responders to the survey. Almost all responders found that injury prevention is relevant (97.7% [95% CI 97.0% to 98.2%]), without any significant differences in the distribution between stakeholders’ age, experience and sex (p>0.05). About three-quarters of the stakeholders preferred to find injury prevention information on a website (77.4%) without significant differences between stakeholders’ categories (p>0.05); other media to find injury prevention information was chosen by less than 50% of responders. Expectations about injury prevention were mainly explanations, advice and tips about injury knowledge, management and prevention, based on expert opinion and/or scientific research. In conclusion, these results confirm that injury prevention is a challenge shared by numerous stakeholders in athletics, within France, and provide some orientation on how and what information to disseminate to these stakeholders.

Key words

injury risk reduction - implementation - communication - knowledge translation - track and field

Supplementary Material



Publication History

Received: 05 September 2021

Accepted: 03 May 2022

Accepted Manuscript online:
04 May 2022

Article published online:
22 July 2022

© 2022. Thieme. All rights reserved.

Georg Thieme Verlag KG
Rüdigerstraße 14, 70469 Stuttgart, Germany

 

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