Why isn't more injury prevention evidence-based?

Human rights-based approach to unintentional injury prevention

Unintentional injury remains an important global public health issue, and efforts to address it are often hampered by a lack of visibility, leadership, funding, infrastructure, capacity and evidence of effective solutions. The growing support for a socioecological model and a systems approach to prevention-along with the acknowledgement that injury prevention can be a byproduct of salutogenic design and activities-has increased opportunities to integrate unintentional injury prevention into other health promotion and disease prevention agendas. It has also helped to integrate it into the broader human development agenda through the Sustainable Development Goals. This growing support provides new opportunities to use a human rights-based approach to address the issue. The human rights-based approach is based on the idea that all members of society have social, economic and cultural rights and that governments are responsible and accountable for upholding those rights. It incorporates a systems approach, addresses inequity and places an emphasis on the most vulnerable corners of humanity. It also leverages legal statutes and provides organisations with the opportunity to build existing international goals and benchmarks into their monitoring efforts. This paper describes the approach and highlights how it can leverage attention and investment to address current challenges for unintentional injury.

A concept mapping approach to identifying the barriers to implementing an evidence-based sports injury prevention programme

Background and aim

Understanding the barriers to programme use is important to facilitate implementation of injury prevention programmes in real-word settings. This study investigated the barriers to coaches of adolescent female soccer teams, in Victoria, Australia, implementing the evidence-based FIFA 11+ injury prevention programme.

Methods

Concept mapping with data collected from 19 soccer coaches and administrators.

Results

Brainstorming generated 65 statements as barriers to 11+ implementation. After the statements were synthesised and edited, participants sorted 59 statements into groups (mean, 6.2 groups; range, 3–10 groups). Multidimensional scaling and hierarchical cluster analysis identified a six-cluster solution: Lack of 11+ knowledge among coaches (15 statements), Lack of player enjoyment and engagement (14), Lack of link to football-related goals (11), Lack of facilities and resources (8), Lack of leadership (6) and Lack of time at training (5). Statements in the ‘Lack of 11+ knowledge among coaches’ cluster received the highest mean importance (3.67 out of 5) and feasibility for the Football Federation to address (3.20) rating. Statements in the ‘Lack of facilities and resources’ cluster received the lowest mean importance rating (2.23), while statements in the ‘Lack of time at training’ cluster received the lowest mean feasibility rating (2.19).

Conclusions

A multistrategy, ecological approach to implementing the 11+—with specific attention paid to improving coach knowledge about the 11+ and how to implement it, linking the 11+ to the primary goal of soccer training, and organisational leadership—is required to improve the uptake of the 11+ among the targeted coaches.

Call for cross governmental leadership to strategic cooperation among multiple stakeholders in preventing injuries in Europe: conclusions of the 2nd European Conference on Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion, 9-10 October 2008

In this paper the conclusions of the 2nd European Conference on Injury Prevention are being presented. The conference aims were to promote the development of national plans, infrastructures and capacities for safety promotion at the regional, national and local levels and to facilitate government departments, non-governmental organisations and other stakeholders in enhancing inter-sectoral collaboration and actions on injury prevention. Session moderators reported in a standardised format on the sessions they facilitated and their recommendations were given to European and national authorities and other stakeholders. The increasing European recognition of injuries as an important health and consumer protection issue is evidenced by the adoption of important policy documents, such as the Council Recommendation on the prevention of injuries and the promotion of safety and the WHO Regional Committee Resolution. Currently, there is a substantial knowledge base in injury prevention and some capacity available in various regions in Europe to act on that knowledge. The field has generated momentum that must now be harnessed and leveraged to create greater visibility for this important societal issue in health and other relevant policy at the national and EU levels. Member States and national governments should provide leadership to strategic cooperation among multiple stakeholders and ensure sustained political commitment and financing.