An audit of injuries within a cohort of elite level professional speedway riders during the competitive season 2018-19

An evaluation using new auditable injury data collected by a UEA MSc pre-registration physiotherapy master´s student, supported by a university supervisor.

No power calculation was performed for a recommended sample size, as this project does not aim to determine an effect size, but aims to report descriptively on change within individuals.

Speedway riders were formally consented to participate in the collection of data recording any injury sustained during the speedway season. Data was collected via a self-report form using a standard set of questions. The injuries were described and located on a body chart. Additional information regarding how much participation in sport time was lost, was also collected. As all injuries may potentially impact on participation, this included any injury which occurred in contexts both inside and outside the realm of the speedway activities.

Van Mechelen et al's ´Systematic Prevention´ model (1992) was used to ensure that the approach to data collection was systematic, based on how the model describes the injury incidence and the severity of injuries. Incidence is usually defined as the number of injuries per exposure time (e.g. per 1000 hours of sports participation). The severity of sports injuries is described within this model in relation to six categories: the nature of the injury, the duration and nature of treatment, sporting time lost, working time lost, permanent damage and cost.

Subjective information (self-reported by the rider) was collected using questions selected from a standard Maitland subjective assessment format.

Although there are different methods available, the Maitland method (first described by Maitland in 1970) is widely recognised by physiotherapists as a competent and effective method of collecting data that can be used to form a logical and deduced hypothesis about the nature of the origins of the disorder. The subjective part of the assessment formed part of this approach. The UEA physiotherapy masters student then collected a more detailed summary of the nature and location of the injury from the rider at the next available home fixture following self-report. Where this was not possible data was collected over the phone using the same format. All riders who consented also provided a verbal version of their previous medical history to provide context to any injuries that occurred.