How injury prevention programs are being structured and implemented worldwide: An international survey of sports physical therapists

Objective
To identify the role of sports physical therapists (PT) in the injury prevention process and to compare the structure of preventive programs and associated (organization) policies applied in athletic organizations and sports teams of varying gender and level world-wide.

Design: cross-sectional study.

Setting
LimeSurvey platform.

Participants
Sports PT working with athletes invited through the International Federation of Sports Physical Therapy.

Main outcome measures
Sports injury prevention program (IPP) structure and implementation.

Results
414 participants fully participate in this survey study. Athlete's injury history (68.84%), the most common injuries within the sport modality (67.87%) and athlete's preseason screening results (64.01%) were most frequently used to customize IPPs. Warm-up (70.04%) and individually PT-guided exercise-therapy (70.04%) were the preferred methods to organize the prevention routine. The main barrier for IPP implementation was lack of time within the athlete's weekly training schedule (66.66%). The majority of the participants (72.84%) reported to evaluate the perception of IPP's effect by comparing current and preceding seasons' injury occurrences.

Conclusion
These survey results are the first identifying contemporary sports injury prevention organization and implementation policies on an international level. This information might support the sports PT community in improving and standardizing IPP (implementation) strategies worldwide.