Background Studies of Swedish track and field athletes have shown that there is a substantial risk of injury. None of these studies have investigated the potential role of how athletes perceive their injury risk, and how it may play a part in the occurrence of sport injuries. Objective Explore how Swedish track and field athletes perceive their injury risk, and examine the potential correlation with prior injury experience. Design A quantitative design, an exploratory study. Setting Swedish junior elite track and field athletes. Patients (or Participants) The convenience sample comprised 69 out of 97 Swedish junior elite track & field athletes. The entry criteria included injury free when answering the questionnaire, active in track & field, participated in at least one youth or junior national team between 2013 and 2017. Interventions (or Assessment of Risk Factors) The participants had four weeks to fill out a two-part online questionnaire. The first part requested relevant personal information including previous injuries in the past 12 months; the second part consisted of `The Perception of Risk of Injury Scale` (RISSc), but modified accordingly to the targeted sport. Main Outcome Measurements RISSc scores were set as the dependent variable. Results Non-significant results (p=0,095) were found between gender and perceived injury risk. If an athlete reported more than one injury in the past 12 months, they perceived their re-injury risk (p<0,025) to be higher. Significant results were found between perceived injury risk and the severity of the injury (p<0,006, r=-0,32). Conclusions Previous injury has a small correlation to perceived injury risk. It may be possible to reduce negative perceptions concerning re-injury in athletes with higher perceptions of injury risk. Awareness of re-injury should be increased among athletes with a history of severe injury. This study may serve as a springboard for additional research.
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