A recent study among elite female football players found that traditional registrations through team medical staff records underestimated the injuries by 62% when compared to individual registrations using SMS.
3 text messages each week
Throughout the 2009 competitive football season, 228 female players from the Norwegian elite league recorded their daily training sessions, matches and all injuries by using the cell phone.
Over a 7-month study period on a Sunday evening, all players received 3 SMS with questions regarding their total minutes of match play, hours of training, as well as whether they had sustained an injury during the last week.
All players reporting an injury were contacted to complete an injury form and collect information regarding the injury circumstances.
Concurrent with the individual SMS registration, a member of the team medical staff from all 12 teams reported injuries and exposure throughout the season.
Only half of the serious injuries captured by team medical staff records
A total of 232 time-loss injuries were reported throughout the season. Of these, 90% were reported through the individual SMS registration, whereas only 38% were reported by the medical staff.
Furthermore, only half of the serious injuries leading to absence above 4 weeks were captured through medical staff registrations. The findings also revealed a significantly higher incidence of match injuries based on individual registrations compared to medical staff reports.
A feasible and effective tool for injury registration
The response rate was high (90% compliance), and the findings showed that individual injury registration using text messaging gave a more complete recording of injury patterns among elite female football players than standard medical staff registration.
The text messaging method appeared to be feasible and effective, and could be a useful tool for future injury surveillance studies.
This study was conducted by PT and PhD student Agnethe Nilstad together with Roald Bahr and Thor Einar Andersen.
Download the paper in Scandinavian Journal of Medicine in Scince and Sports.