Principles of Injury and Injury Prevention

Question 1

What were the selection pressures on early hominids?

Answer 1

• Hunter-gatherers
• Traveling large distances to find food
• Food not in plentiful supply

Question 2

What quality did early hominids have to overcome the selection pressures?

Answer 2

-Had to be energetically efficient

Question 3

Why are humans not particularly fast compared to some animals?

Answer 3

• Shorter stride length
• Slower muscle contraction velocity
• Bipedal; Legs have to support bodyweight and provide thrust

Question 4

Even though humans are not faster than other animals, what advantage do they have?

Answer 4

-Humans are exceptional at endurance running

Question 5

What makes humans good endurance runners?

Answer 5

• Relatively long legs for body size
• Springs within legs to utilise elastic recoil
• Breathing mechanisms not linked to stride frequency

Question 6

Define Injury

Answer 6

Bodily damage caused by a transfer of energy that exceeded he body’s ability to maintain its structural and/or functional integrity

Question 7

What is a Traumatic Injury?

Answer 7

• One off overload of the system

- Often due to the impact mechanism (but not always)

Question 8

What is an Overuse Injury?

Answer 8

• Repeated loading the system (cyclical)
• Damage builds up over time
• Symptoms appear gradually
• Load of not excessive magnitude can cause failure

Question 9

What is an acute injury?

Answer 9

The first injury episode

Question 10

What is chronic injury?

Answer 10

a recurrence of a previous injury

Question 11

How is injury severity measured?

Answer 11

-Time loss from training/sport

Question 12

How is injury incidence reported?

Answer 12

• Number of injuries/total exposure * 1000

- gives injuries per 1000 playing hours/matches/athlete exposures

Question 13

What is injury burden?

Answer 13

• injury incidence * average severity

Question 14

What are the areas of injury classification?

Answer 14

• Location of injury
• Type of injury
• Match vs training
• Contact vs non contact

Question 15

What is a risk factor?

Answer 15

Any attribute, characteristic or exposure of an individual that increases the likelihood of developing a disease or injury

Question 16

What are the classifications of risk factors?

Answer 16

• Intrinsic; related to a person, their physiology and anatomy
• Extrinsic; external to the person
• Modifiable/Non-modifiable

Question 17

Give some examples of non-modifiable intrinsic risk factors for injury

Answer 17

• Previous injury
• Genetic factors
• Sex
• Height/Size

Question 18

Give some modifiable intrinsic risk factors for injury

Answer 18

• Poor alignment
• Muscle imbalance
• Leg length discrepancy
• Lack of flexibility
• Body composition

Question 19

Give an example of a non-modifiable extrinsic risk factor for injury

Answer 19

Environmental conditions like heat, cold, humidity, dryness, etc.

Question 20

Give some examples of modifiable extrinsic risk factors for injury

Answer 20

• Type of playing surface
• Equipment
• Rules of the sport

Question 21

What is the 4 step sequence of injury prevention research by van Mechelen 1992?

Answer 21

1. Establish the extent of the injury
2. Establish causes and mechanisms of the injury
3. Introduce a preventative measure
4. Assess its effectiveness by repeating Step 1

Question 22

What is the Sports Injury Causation Model by Bahr and Krosshaug (2005)?

Answer 22

Intrinsic risk factors –> Predisposed Athlete –> Exposure to extrinsic risk factor –> susceptible athlete –> Inciting event –> injury