Citation

Wilkerson GB, Gupta A, Allen JR, Keith CM, Colston MA. J. Strength Cond. Res. 2016; 30(9): 2369-2374.

Affiliation

Professor, Graduate Athletic Training Program, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, Chattanooga, TN Associate Professor, Analytics and Information Systems, Director, Big Data & Analytics Research Center, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, Chattanooga, TN Assistant Athletic Director for Sports Medicine, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL Athletic Performance Analyst, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL Professor, Graduate Athletic Training Program, 615 McCallie Ave. Dept 6606, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, Chattanooga.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016, National Strength and Conditioning Association)

DOI

10.1519/JSC.0000000000001370

PMID

26849792

Abstract

Relatively few studies have investigated the potential injury prevention value of data derived from recently developed wearable technology for measurement of body mass accelerations during the performance of sport-related activities. The available evidence has been derived from studies focused on avoidance of overtraining syndrome, which is believed to induce a chronically fatigued state that can be identified through monitoring of inertial load accumulation. Reduced variability in movement patterns is also believed to be an important injury risk factor, but no evidence currently exists to guide interpretation of data derived from inertial measurement units (IMUs) in this regard. We retrospectively analyzed archived data for a cohort of 45 NCAA Division 1-FBS football players who wore IMUs on the upper back during practice sessions to quantify any associations between average inertial load measured during practice sessions and occurrence of musculoskeletal sprains and strains. Both the coefficient of variation for average inertial load and frequent exposure to game conditions were found to be strongly associated with injury occurrence. Having either or both of the 2 risk factors provided strong discrimination between injured and non-injured players (χ = 9. 048; P =.004; OR = 8.04; 90% CI: 2.39, 27.03). Our findings may facilitate identification of individual football players who are likely to derive the greatest benefit from training activities designed to reduce injury risk through improved adaptability to rapidly changing environmental demands.

Keywords: American football;

Language: en