Towards Long-term Musculoskeletal Health Benefits in Adolescent Athletes: Specific Challenges in Primary and Secondary Prevention in this Pivotal Period

Reducing the risk of sports injury is of vital importance to support the numerous short- and long-term benefits athletes receive from sport participation. This is especially true for adolescent athletes facing both rapid anatomical and physiological changes and increase in sport solicitations as adolescents increase their training load, the number of competitions and expectations of them rise. Despite the current work in this area, a lack of understanding exists on how these pubertal changes may interact with a variety of injuries in sport (e.g. do pubertal changes increase the risk of sports injury occurrence? Are there any specific risk factors or association? Does it differ according to sports?). Additionally, risk factors for injury may emerge which could be targeted with structured interventions aimed at reducing devastating injuries. For instance, knee injury prevention programs have been developed in younger football players which may be more successful compared to older players Therefore, an adolescent-specific approach in primary and secondary prevention, including risk management of the first injury event but also of the subsequent injuries through optimized rehabilitation, is expected.

This Research Topic aims to collect papers that address the unique challenges that emerge during adolescence which likely influence sports injuries.

Topics of interest include:
• Identification of injury risk factors and subsequent injuries in adolescent athletes;
• Longitudinal and cross-sectional comparisons, across levels of maturation, of factors which may influence sport injury and recurrence injury;
• Development and/or delivery of interventions aimed at reducing risk of injury and subsequent injuries in adolescent athletes (i.e. primary and secondary prevention, including rehabilitation approaches).