A Two-year Injury Survey of Male Senior High School Soccer Players: Effectiveness of a Groin Pain Prevention Program

Abstract

[Purpose] To clarify the effectiveness of the Copenhagen Adduction Exercise (CAE) for male high school soccer players based on groin pain prevalence and severity. [Participants and Methods] We divided the participants into 2 groups: 205 who performed the exercise (CAE group) and 194 who did not (non-CAE group). For groin pain prevalence, we calculated the injury rate (IR) by dividing the number of injury occurrences by 1,000 player-hours (1,000 ph), and for groin pain severity, we classified the players’ conditions into slight, minimal, mild, moderate, and severe cases. [Results] IR was 0.25/1,000 ph in the CAE group and 0.78/1,000 ph in the non-CAE group, revealing a risk ratio of 0.33. Furthermore, there were significant differences between the groups in the numbers of mild and severe cases. [Conclusion] CAE reduced IR by 30%. In terms of severity, for both minor (slight, minimal and mild) and major (moderate and severe) cases, the numbers were smaller in the CAE group. It was therefore suggested that CAE reduces the prevalence of groin pain overall without regard to its severity levels.