English men's community rugby boasts the largest adult rugby playing population in the world. While regular participation in rugby has been linked to clinical health benefits there is an inherent risk of injury associated with rugby participation due to its collision based nature. This programme of research was conducted to identify means to reduce the injury risk in the context of men's community rugby. In Chapter 3, the Functional Movement Screen is used to assess the movement competency of men's community rugby players. Injury match exposure data was recorded for each player, and analysed to determine associations between players' movement competency and injury outcomes. Players that displayed both of pain and asymmetry on screening were associated with an incidence of overall injury at 22.0 injuries/1000 player match-hours. Players that scored 16 or more had an incidence of overall injury at 12.4 injuries/1000 player match-hours. Chapter 4 details the multi-stage process used to develop the injury prevention exercise programme specific to men's community rugby. Chapter 5 investigated barriers and facilitators to programme implementation in a sample of men's community rugby clubs. Results informed the refinement of the intervention exercise programme and detailed means to maximise successful delivery of the programme to clubs. Chapter 6 was a cluster randomised controlled trial of the final injury prevention exercise programme. Clear beneficial effects following implementation included a 40% reduction in targeted lower-limb injury and a 60% reduction in concussion compared to the control group. The injury burden for intervention clubs with higher compliance was reduced 50% compared to intervention clubs with lower compliance. Functional Movement Screening™ may identify men's community rugby players at higher risk of match injury. A targeted movement control exercise programme can provide efficacious means to reduce injury that is practicable within the men's community rugby environment.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:723327 |
| Date | January 2017 |
| Creators | Attwood, Matthew James |
| Contributors | Stokes, Keith ; Roberts, Simon ; Trewartha, Grant |
| Publisher | University of Bath |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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