Introduction: The prevention of football injuries should start at a young age (Rössler et al., 2014). Based on epidemiological data (Rössler et al., 2016b), the injury prevention program FIFA 11+ Kids was developed (Rössler et al., 2016a). The objective of the present study was to assess the effectiveness of FIFA 11+ Kids with regard to injury prevention. Methods: Children`s football teams (under-11 and under-13 age groups) from Switzerland, Czech Republic, The Netherlands, and Germany were recruited. Clubs were randomised to an intervention (INT) and a control group (CON), and followed for one season. INT performed FIFA 11+ Kids during their warm-up, while CON warmed-up as usually. Data was collected using an internet-based registration platform. Time-to-injury data were analysed, and hazard ratios (HR) calculated using extended Cox models to account for correlations on team- and intra-person-level. Results: In total, 3,895 player seasons and 292,749 hours of football exposure were recorded. Mean age of players was 10.8 (SD 1.4) years. During the study period 374 (INT=139; CON=235) injuries occurred. Overall injury rate in INT was reduced by 48% compared to CON (HR 0.52; 95%-CI 0.32-0.86), P=0.01). Further reductions of injury rates were found with regard to match (49%, (HR 0.51; 0.27-0.94), P=0.03), to training (42%, (HR 0.58; 0.38-0.89), P=0.01), to severe (74%, (HR 0.26; 0.10-0.64), P=0.003) and to lower extremity injuries (55%, (HR 0.45; 0.24-0.84), (P=0.01). Discussion: FIFA 11+ Kids is effective in reducing injuries in children`s football. Considerable effects were found for overall, match, training, lower extremity, and specifically severe injuries. The present overall injury reduction is comparable to studies in older youth football players (Rössler et al., 2014). The reduction of injury incidence might be due to improved motor performance (Rössler et al., 2016a). A broad implementation may help to reduce injuries and to support the health benefits of playing football in the long term. The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support of FIFA.
© Copyright 2016 21st Annual Congress of the European College of Sport Science (ECSS), Vienna, 6. -9. July 2016. Veröffentlicht von University of Vienna. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.