Gymnastik- och idrottshögskolan, GIH

Symposium

Topics: Prevention and rehabilitation

Keywords: Injury, prevention, rehabilitation, sport

Psychology of sports injuries: from pre-in jury to return to sport. Current research and practical implications

Chair(s): Ulrika Tranaeus (The Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences, GIH, Sweden)

In addition to the physical consequences of sport injuries, athletes must contend with a range of psychosocial challenges – both in the immediate injury aftermath (pain, loss of function) and throughout the recovery process (motivational decrements, lack of confidence in return toplay). It is therefore important to identify factors influencing injury risk, recovery, and return to play. Evaluation of injury prevention strategies are also of evident importance.The purpose of this symposium is to examine psychosocial factors and interventions influencing injury risk, rehabilitation and return to play. By doing so, each presenter highlights empirical and applied implications. This symposium includes five presentations.The initial presentation overviews psychosocial risk factors for traumatic and overuse injuries and discussion regarding prevention strategies. A presentation of methodological implications for research on psychosocial risk factors will follow. This presentation includes how interactions of risk factors influence injury risk and recommendations for statistical analyses.The third presentation gives an example of a cognitive-behavioural therapy smartphone-based intervention programme. The intervention consists of daily use of a stress management programme delivered in a smartphone app aiming to reduce stress and prevent injuries.The fourth presentation articulates reviews some examples of future research strategies in rehabilitation. Longitudinal study designs that examines intra-individual changes will be discussed.Finally, the fifth presentation examines the role of psychosocial factors influencing return versus non-return to sport following injury, as well as the quality of post-injury performance. This will be discussed in the framework of the self-determination theory.

Presentations of the Symposium

Psychosocial risk factors for traumatic and overuse injuries in sport

Ulrika Tranaeus The Swedish Sch ool of Sport and Health Sciences, GIH

Despite the health benefits of sport participation, involvement in competitive sport is associated with injury risk. Injuries are classified into two kinds with different causation − traumatic injuries and overuse injuries. Traumatic injuries have a sudden onset with or without contact, while overuse injuries occur after repetitive load without feasible recovery (Fuller et al., 2006). The psychosocial risk factors for these kinds of injuries differ. Risk factors for traumatic injuries are described in various models, the most prominent and well-tested being the Williams and Andersen’s (1998) Stress-Injury Model. An evaluation of the model showed that the stress response had the strongest relationship to injury rates (Ivarssonet al., 2017). The magnitude of the stress response and the athlete’s appraisal of a stressful situation are suggested to be influenced by the interplay between various psychosocial factors: personality factors, history of stressors, and coping resources. With this knowledge, prevention programmes designed to address injury risk factors (e.g., stress perceptions) and subsequent injury occurrence have been evaluated. Risk factor studies for overuse injuries and overtraining have showed similarities such as intrapersonal factors (e.g., motivation, dealing with pain), interpersonal factors (e.g., communication, social support), and situational factors (e.g., stress in sport and/or from life events) (Richardson,Andersen, & Morris, 2008; Tranaeus, Johnson, Engström, Skillgate, & Werner, 2014). These factors are suggested to influence athletes’ excessive behaviours and limited recovery which may lead to overuse injuries. This presentation is germane for researchers and practitioners hoping to mitigate acute and overuse injury occurrence.