Incidence of injuries and/or musculoskeletal pain and associated factors in athletes belonging to professional soccer teams in the state of Rio de Janeiro during the 2018 Brazilian championship serie a

Abstract

Introduction: Football is characterized by confrontation, changes in direction, accelerations and decelerations. This physiological stress associated with competitions and training compromises the athletes' performance due to injuries and musculoskeletal pain. Objective: The objective of the present study was to investigate the incidence of injuries and/or musculoskeletal pain (LDM) related to athletes belonging to the professional soccer teams of the state of Rio de Janeiro participating in the Brazilian championship of series A of 2018. Methods: The sample consisted of 148 professional athletes from football clubs in Rio de Janeiro who participated in 1 or more games of the 2018 Brazilian Championship A series. Each team participated in 38 official matches. For data collection, an
epidemiological questionnaire developed by FIFA / F-MARC was used. This questionnaire was filled out by the author in the 152 games analyzed, which investigated the following variables: time of exposure of the athlete suffering from injury or musculoskeletal pain during the game; diagnosis; type of LDM; LDM location; time off; tactical position of the athlete characterized with LDM; age. The data were obtained through “extra punch” collections. Without the participation or knowledge of the players, managers and technical commission of the evaluated teams. Results: 591 LDM were identified with an incidence of 58.9 LDM / 1000h of exposure.
Age (27.05 ± 5.91 years) was an independent factor for withdrawal from training and competitions (OR = 1.13; 95% CI = 1.02 to 1.25, p <0.02). The exposure time showed an association with the number of LDM (beta coefficient = 3.31; 95% CI = 2.59 to 4.02; p <0.001). Regarding tactical positioning, it was observed that midfielders and attackers had higher incidence of LDM (38.2% and 26.9% LDM, respectively). In the meantime, the most comprehensive type of injury was muscle contusions. The ankle followed by the head, leg, thigh and knee were the most affected body segments. It was identified that the most frequent leave period was between 8 and 48 days. Conclusion: The epidemiological study of risk factors and possible variables seems to be a good way to better explain the occurrences of LDM in football. It is suggested to understand the origin of the causes and their effects, in order to intervene in the
adequacy of preventive and recovery protocols, paying attention to the specificity of each problem. As well as, the need to use epidemiological investigation questionnaires for the control of injuries, performed by individuals (company or control and inspection
bodies) with authorization to access the databases of clubs' medical committees.