Evidence map›Paper›PMID 26399611›Full record

Trial reportInjury prevention : journal of the International Society for Child and Adolescent Injury Prevention2016

Preventing Australian football injuries with a targeted neuromuscular control exercise programme: comparative injury rates from a training intervention delivered in a clustered randomised controlled trial.

Caroline F Finch, Dara M Twomey, Lauren V Fortington, Tim L A Doyle, Bruce C Elliott, Muhammad Akram, David G Lloyd

Abstract readComparative StudyRandomized Controlled Trial
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Trial report in Injury prevention : journal of the International Society for Child and Adolescent Injury Prevention, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 26 papers, 7 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
26citing papers in PubMed, 7 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

26 citing papers in PubMed, 7 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.

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  11. Gender/Sex Entanglement, Structural Sexism, and Injury: The Case of Australian Rules Football.American journal of human biology : the official journal of the Human Biology Council · 2025
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors.

Caroline F FinchAustralian Centre for Research into Injury in Sport and its Prevention (ACRISP), Federation University Australia, Ballarat, Victoria, Australia.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1711-1930
Dara M TwomeyFaculty of Health, Federation University Australia, Ballarat, Victoria, Australia.
Lauren V FortingtonAustralian Centre for Research into Injury in Sport and its Prevention (ACRISP), Federation University Australia, Ballarat, Victoria, Australia.
Tim L A DoyleCentre for Musculoskeletal Research, Menzies Health Institute Queensland, Griffith University, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia.
Bruce C ElliottSchool of Sport Science, Exercise and Health, the University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia, Australia.
Muhammad AkramAustralian Centre for Research into Injury in Sport and its Prevention (ACRISP), Federation University Australia, Ballarat, Victoria, Australia.
David G LloydCentre for Musculoskeletal Research, Menzies Health Institute Queensland, Griffith University, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia School of Sport Science, Exercise and Health, the University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia, Australia.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundExercise-based training programmes are commonly used to prevent sports injuries but programme effectiveness within community men's team sport is largely unknown.

objectiveTo present the intention-to-treat analysis of injury outcomes from a clustered randomised controlled trial in community Australian football.

methodsPlayers from 18 male, non-elite, community Australian football clubs across two states were randomly allocated to either a neuromuscular control (NMC) (intervention n=679 players) or standard-practice (control n=885 players) exercise training programme delivered as part of regular team training sessions (2× weekly for 8-week preseason and 18-week regular-season). All game-related injuries and hours of game participation were recorded. Generalised estimating equations, adjusted for clustering (club unit), were used to compute injury incidence rates (IIRs) for all injuries, lower limb injuries (LLIs) and knee injuries sustained during games. The IIRs were compared across groups with cluster-adjusted Injury Rate Ratios (IRRs).

resultsOverall, 773 game injuries were recorded. The lower limb was the most frequent body region injured, accounting for 50% of injuries overall, 96 (12%) of which were knee injuries. The NMC players had a reduced LLI rate compared with control players (IRR: 0.78 (95% CI 0.56 to 1.08), p=0.14.) The knee IIR was also reduced for NMC compared with control players (IRR: 0.50 (95% CI 0.24 to 1.05), p=0.07).

conclusionsThese intention-to-treat results indicate that positive outcomes can be achieved from targeted training programmes for reducing knee and LLI injury rates in men's community sport. While not statistically significant, reducing the knee injury rate by 50% and the LLI rate by 22% is still a clinically important outcome. Further injury reductions could be achieved with improved training attendance and participation in the programme.

Indexed as

ExerciseFootballAdultAthletic InjuriesAustraliaBiomechanical PhenomenaCluster AnalysisHealth Knowledge, Attitudes, PracticeHumansKnee InjuriesKnee JointMalePhysical Education and TrainingProgram Evaluation

Identifiers

PMID26399611
PMCPMC4819647

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.