Groin problems in male football - beyond the time-loss approach

• Autores: Ernest Esteve
• Directores de la Tesis: Kristian Thorborg (dir. tes.), Per Holmich (codir. tes.), Michael S. Rathleff (codir. tes.)
• Lectura: En la Universitat de Girona ( España ) en 2020
• Idioma: español
• Tribunal Calificador de la Tesis: Martin Hägglund (presid.), Carles Pedret (secret.), Alan Mccall (voc.)
• Programa de doctorado: Programa de Doctorado en Biología Molecular, Biomedicina y Salud por la Universidad de Girona
• Materias:
  • Ciencias médicas
• Enlaces
  • Tesis en acceso abierto en: TDX
• Resumen

  • Groin injuries are among the most common injuries on male football players. These injuries are highly troublesome, resulting in long absence from play and substantial performance impairments. Therefore, prevention of groin injuries is of great importance in male football, although the current evidence is still scarce. This could be partly explained by the fact that groin injuries commonly present with a gradual onset, instead of sudden onset. This may allow players to adapt and continue playing while experiencing substantial impairments in their performance. Furthermore, these difficulties in detecting groin injuries may also make it more challenging for identifying risk factors for these injuries.

    Thus, this project aimed at studying the prevalence and severity of groin injuries in male football as well as to broaden the knowledge of aetiology and risk factors, in order to prevent these injuries better.

    This project was structured following what is known as "the sequence of injury prevention", established in four steps. The first step, "establishing extent of the injury problem" was addressed in Papers I and II, which investigated the prevalence and severity of groin problems beyond the traditional time-loss definition, in a football in-season and pre-season, respectively. The second step, "establishing the aetiology and mechanisms of sports injuries" was addressed in Papers III and IV, which investigated whether a known risk factor such as hip adductor strength may be influenced by with previous groin pain and player's age, and lastly, assessed known and novel risk factors for future groin problems.

    The four papers, which form part of this Thesis, are based on the same research project investigating groin injuries among a cohort of amateur players from 17 Spanish teams. At pre-season, we collected variables such as information about groin pain in the previous season, pre-season short- and long-lever hip adductor squeeze strength, together with demographic and anthropometric data). Hip- and groin-related sporting function was registered at baseline, and every fourth week during the in-season, using the Sport and Recreation subscale from The Copenhagen Hip and Groin Outcome Score (HAGOS (Sport)) questionnaire. Time-loss groin injuries, registered by the team physiotherapist, in addition to self-reported groin pain, irrespective of time loss, were registered over 44 weeks to document all groin problems, and groin problems with and without time loss.