Data - External stressors prior to traumatic knee injury: A cohort study on youth athletes.

Background: Data on external stressors, such as social and environment variables and other "life events", and its relation to injury in youth athletic population are scarce. Investigating if external stressors is associated with injury risk may help coaches and other team staff to provide a more safe sport environment. The aim of the present study was to evaluate different aspects of external stressors and its potential association to traumatic knee injury in youth athletes.
Methods: This study comprised of youth female and male athletes from Swedish national sports high schools, aged 15–19 years, participating and competing in soccer, handball, or floorball. The athletes recorded any traumatic knee injury that had occurred during high-school in a web-based injury form. Data on external stressors and subjective perceived stress was also collected.
Results: The majority (60%) of stress factors noted was related to sport context. More athletes in the injured group of athletes reported life event stressor (p=0.001) and experienced stress more often (p=0.02) compared to the group of non-injured athletes. No differences between injured and non-injured athletes in terms of change of club, team coach, training protocol or game formation were noted (p>0.05). A weak correlation (r=0.20, p=0.02) was found between the number of stressors and injuries.
Conclusions: A high prevalence of external stressors are present in youth elite athletes with a majority of stress factors related to sport context. Life event stressors are present prior to injury and seem to be associated with traumatic knee injury to some degree.

背景：目前关于青少年竞技人群（youth athletic population）的外部应激源（external stressors，包括社会与环境变量及其他“生活事件”）与损伤相关性的数据仍较为匮乏。探究外部应激源是否与损伤风险相关，有助于教练员及其他团队工作人员构建更安全的运动环境。本研究旨在评估青少年运动员外部应激源的多维度特征，及其与创伤性膝关节损伤（traumatic knee injury）的潜在关联。
方法：本研究的研究对象为瑞典国家体育高中的青少年男女运动员，年龄介于15至19岁之间，参与足球、手球或地板球项目的训练与赛事。运动员通过网络损伤记录表记录高中阶段发生的所有创伤性膝关节损伤情况，同时收集外部应激源及主观感知压力的相关数据。
结果：研究显示，记录到的应激因素中多数（60%）与运动场景相关。与未损伤组运动员相比，损伤组运动员报告存在生活事件应激源的比例更高（p=0.001），且更频繁地感受到压力（p=0.02）。在俱乐部变更、球队教练更换、训练计划调整或比赛阵型变动方面，损伤组与未损伤组运动员未观察到显著差异（p>0.05）。应激源数量与损伤发生之间存在弱相关性（相关系数r=0.20，p=0.02）。
结论：青少年精英运动员中外部应激源的检出率较高，且多数应激因素与运动场景相关。生活事件应激源常出现于损伤发生之前，且在一定程度上与创伤性膝关节损伤存在关联。