How injury registration and preseason assessment are being delivered: An international survey of sports physical therapists

Abstract

Objective: To identify the role of sports physical therapists (PT) in the organization of injury registration and preseason assessment, applied in athletic organizations and sports teams of different gender and level world-wide.

Design: cross-sectional study.

Setting: LimeSurvey platform.

Participants: Sports PTs working with athletes invited through International Federation of Sports Physical Therapy.

Main outcome measures: injury registration and athlete's screening.

Results: 414 sports PTs participated in this international survey (mean age of 37.66 (SD = 9.38) years). 340 participants indicated that the PT as the responsible for injury registration. Barriers to properly register injury throughout the season were indicated by 157 sports PT and 86 (54.77%) indicated a lack of time on their routine as the main factor. 93 participants (30.09%) indicated that they customize the prevention program based on the preseason assessment. Sports PTs who reported not performing a preseason assessment (92 participants - 22.22%) mainly indicated this to be consequence of lack of structure in the organization (44 participants - 47.82%).

Conclusion: The majority of the sports PTs participate on injury registration and perform preseason assessment in athletes. However, lack of time in their routine and structure in the organization were recognized as the most important barriers to organize these properly.

Keywords: Athlete; Evaluation; Overload; Prevention; Screening.