A systematic review of psychological risk factors for overuse injuries in athletes
Introduction
Based on the prevalence of overuse injuries, it is important to identify risk factors and develop preventive strategies. The knowledge regarding how an injury occur is rather established, why it occurs and the behaviour related to that is however not as evident. The aim of this systematic review was to identify psychological risk factors for overuse injuries.
Material and method
The databases Medline, PsycInfo and Web of Science were searched by librarians at Karolinska Institute using the combination of MeSh terms with appropriate truncations and Boolean combinations of words and operators: overuse injury, psychology, risk factor, athlete AND sport, limited to academic peer-reviewed journals in Swedish, English, German, Spanish and French. For assessment of quality and bias, a modified version of RoBANS for quantitative studies and Swedish agency for Health technology assessment’s scale for qualitative studies were used. Published papers without empirical data, overuse injuries or not assessing psychological factors were excluded as well as duplicates.
This study followed PRISMA’s guidelines and was registered in PROSPERO.
Results
The searches resulted in 6890 hits, the screening process led to 13 included studies. The risk factors were divided into intra-and interpersonal factors, social norms and culture. Risk factors were e.g. self-regulation, self-blame, body awareness, coach-athlete relationship, acceptance of pain, maladaptive coping, and communication.
Conclusion
Psychological risk factors were identified, and some were considered as fluctuating states which imply that behavioural change is possible. An increased awareness of this knowledge and individualised interventions may reduce the prevalence of overuse injuries in athletes.
2020.