Purpose
The ultimate aim of this project is to develop and evaluate a research-based subject-tailored intervention program for optimizing cutting technique in female elite handball and football players with a previous ACL injury.
Project description
Study 1: Why are players with a previous ACL injury at elevated risk?
This study is a combined prospective cohort and cross-sectional study of knee biomechanics in 880 female elite handball and football players. We want to compare knee biomechanics during sidestep cutting maneuvers between players with and without a history of previous ACL injury and to assess if knee biomechanics are associated with future secondary ACL injury.
Study 2: How does cutting technique influence ACL injury risk and performance in players with and without previous injury?
In this cluster analysis we want to identify the most commonly used cutting technique clusters, based on ten pre-defined variables and to investigate the proportion of players with or without a previous and with or without a new ACL injury during follow-up in each cluster.
Study 3: Predictive modelling of ACL injury risk based on cutting technique variables
This is an exploratory study, where we investigate to what degree each of the 10 pre-defined measures of cutting technique characteristics are related to risk of injury, using a supervised machine learning technique.
Study 4: A tailored injury prevention program based on subject-specific measurements of cutting technique
In this intervention study we want to evaluate the effect of a subject-specific short-term intervention aimed to change cutting technique. Specifically, we wish to investigate if the identified cutting technique risk factors can be consistently changed in repeated anticipated and un-anticipated cutting maneuvers.