World Soccer Group Sets New Definitions and Procedures for Injuries

Newswise — Many studies have tried to calculate the rates of and risk factors for injuries in soccer players. However, variations in research methods and definitions have made it difficult to draw firm conclusions about the characteristics and frequency of soccer injuries and the best approaches to classifying, preventing, and treating them.

To address this issue, the Fédération Internationale de Football (FIFA), the world governing body of soccer, has issued consensus guidelines for the definition and reporting of injuries in soccer players. The guidelines, developed by a group of experts from F-MARC (FIFA Medical Assessment and Research Center) and UEFA Medical Committee involved in the study of football injuries, are published in the March/April Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine.

"The new FIFA statement will help to promote consistent reporting of soccer injuries," comments Willem Meeuwisse, M.D., PhD., Professor at the University of Calgary Sport Medicine Centre, Editor-in-Chief of Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine, and a member of the Injury Consensus Group.

"Standardizing research methods and definitions is an important step toward optimal prevention and treatment."

The statement includes precise definitions of soccer injuries, including recurrent injuries. Based on the length of time lost from full participation, injury severity is also defined in a standard way: from slight (no days missed), to severe (more than 28 days), to career-ending. Criteria for classifying the location, type, diagnosis, and cause of injuries are presented as well.

A key component is precise definitions of game and practice exposure time—information essential for use in calculating the frequency of injuries. The statement includes standard forms for logging game and practice exposure times, for individual players as well as entire teams. Baseline information forms and injury report forms are included as well.

Standardized definitions and reporting formats are a key part of FIFA's recommendations for performing studies of soccer injuries. Studies should be prospective—that is, the population of athletes should be identified in advance and followed up for the occurrence of injuries. This avoids problems with recall bias in retrospective ("backward-looking") studies. Studies should include more than one team, and should follow up players for at least one season, year, or tournament. Other recommendations address measures for protecting player confidentiality and calculating injury rates—best expressed as number of injuries per 1,000 player-hours. A checklist of information that should be included in studies of soccer injuries is included as well.

"By standardizing the way studies of soccer injuries are performed and reported, the new consensus guidelines will support efforts to prevent and minimize their impact of injuries," Dr. Meeuwisse comments. "In the future, the FIFA guidelines may even provide a basis for studies of injuries in other team sports."