Factors Associated With Sports Injuries in Adolescents Who Play Team Sports at a Nonelite Level: A Scoping Review

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: The objectives of this scoping review were to map the evidence for promising injury risk factors in adolescents who played team sports at a nonelite level and to identify gaps in knowledge. DESIGN: Scoping review. LITERATURE SEARCH: Online databases (CINAHL, Embase, Medline, ProQuest, PsycINFO, Scopus, and SPORTDiscus) were searched. STUDY SELECTION CRITERIA: Studies were included if participants were adolescents who played nonelite team sports and exposure to at least 1 potential risk factor for sport-related musculoskeletal injury was evaluated. DATA SYNTHESIS: The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) checklist was used. RESULTS: From 12 077 studies, 377 studies were included; 199 were prospective, 109 were retrospective, and 69 were cross-sectional in design. Soccer was the most frequently investigated sport and females represented 30% of total participants. The most promising potential risk factors (highest proportion of studies) for injury were training load (94%), playing in competition (91%) and previous injury (80%). Less research has investigated psychosocial factors with no study investigating factors over the entire biopsychosocial domain. Considerable methodological heterogeneity existed between studies. CONCLUSIONS: The promising potential risk factors identified in this review require further investigation to explore causal relationships. The heterogeneity found within the current research with respect to potential risk factor variable measures, observation period definitions, and injury definitions may provide limitations when trying to formulate conclusions from meta-analyses using pooled studies. JOSPT Open 2023;1(1):1-15. Epub 8 June 2023. doi:10.2519/josptopen.2023.0006