Soccer injuries in girls and women are a topic of great concern. Incidence of knee injuries in particular is much higher than in similarly aged boys and men, and some knee injuries predispose the athlete to osteoarthritis in later years. In the last 5 years, a number of studies focused on prevention have been published and the latest is published in the Archives of Internal Medicine from researchers at Uppsala University in Sweden. In this large scale study of 2 Swedish counties charmingly called the "HarmoKnee" study, 1506 young women with a broad range of abilities participated in a 4-month program which included a structured warm-up program and strengthening exercises aimed at achieving “safer” motion patterns. There was also an “awareness component” which included a seminar on the importance of preventing knee injuries directed to the player, her parents, and the team’s leaders. Compliance was reported to be between 50-100%.

During the follow-up period, there were 16 new knee injuries, 5 of them injuries to the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL). None of the ACL injuries occurred in subjects in the prevention program which was associated with a 77% reduction in the overall incidence of knee injuries. The injury rate for noncontact knee injuries (when the player was not interacting with an opponent) was 90% lower in the prevention program group.

This program certainly deserves further study by players, parents, and coaches in other countries.

Read an abstract of the article here.