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 Neuromuscular training targets strength, agility and balance more
than a standard warm up routine.
“When you have benefit from an intervention and also reduce
healthcare costs, there’s good on both sides,” said lead author
Deborah A. Marshall of the University of Calgary, the Alberta Bone
and Joint Health Institute and the Health Research Innovation Centre
in Calgary.
“A lot of new technologies that are introduced are better but cost
more,” Marshall told Reuters Health.
The researchers studied data from a randomized trial of 744 youth
soccer players ages 13 to 17 years, including boys and girls, during
the 2006-2007 indoor soccer season in Alberta. The players had been
followed through the season and injuries were recorded.
Half of the players were led through a 15-minute warm up before
play, including five minutes of aerobic and dynamic stretching
components and 10 minutes of neuromuscular training consisting of
eccentric strength, agility and jumping exercises. They were also
directed to do 15 minutes of balance training at home using a wobble
board.
Players in the comparison group had a “standard of practice”
15-minute warm up before play, including on aerobic components,
static and dynamic stretching and a home program that only involved
stretching.
As had been previously published, players in the neuromuscular warm
up group had 38 percent fewer injuries during the season than those
in the comparison group.
For the new study the researchers estimated direct cost savings
related to these injuries, including visits to healthcare
professionals, treatments, surgeries, X-rays, supplies and equipment
used by injured players. They added direct costs to the healthcare
system in Canada to out-of-pocket medical costs incurred by players
and their families, which may include physiotherapy, splits, braces,
crutches and chiropractic visits.
The researchers estimated that for 58,100 Alberta youth soccer
players during one indoor season, there are about 12,000 injuries.
Almost 5,000 injuries could be avoided and $2 million in healthcare
costs saved with the neuromuscular training program, according to
the results in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
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“I perceive savings of 689 Canadian dollars for every 1000
participation hours as very noteworthy, especially considering that
the only intervention was a more effective 15min warm-up,” Jeppe Bo
Lauersen of the Institute of Sports Medicine Copenhagen in Denmark
said by email.
The training aims to improve muscle coordination and dynamic joint
control to reduce undesirable loads in specific muscles, tendons,
joints, and bones, Lauersen, who was not part of the new study, told
Reuters Health.
In this trial the neuromuscular training program did have some
costs, like training coaches in how to direct the warm ups and
purchasing the wobble boards for players to use at home, Marshall
said.
“Since then we developed a video that can teach people how to do
this, so the costs that are associated, the wobble board and
training, would not have to be incurred if you just used the video,”
she said.
That would increase cost savings even more, she said.
The savings in injuries and in healthcare costs should be similar in
other countries, she said.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/1NsDy9d British Journal of Sports Medicine,
online March 31, 2016.
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