THE NEW-ZEALAND RUGBY INJURY AND PERFORMANCE PROJECT .1. DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY OF A PROSPECTIVE FOLLOW-UP-STUDY

Injury resulting from participation in sporting and physical recreatio nal activities is a major contributor to the overall incidence of inju ry in the developed world. If sports injuries are to be reduced, a com prehensive approach must be taken to define the nature and magnitude o f the problem, to establish models of relationships between risk facto rs, protective factors and injury experience, and to address injury th rough well designed intervention and evaluation programmes. The Rugby Injury and Performance Project (RIPP) is a prospective cohort study de signed to examine the risk and protective factors for rugby injury. Da ta were collected on potential risk and protective factors from the RI PP cohort pre-season. Data on exposure to rugby, injury events and med ical treatments were collected from the players each week during the s eason through telephone interviews. Pre-season measures were repeated post-season. A key feature of the design was that data were collected on both injured and non-injured players, allowing a longitudinal compa rison of the injury experience of players with and without the factors of interest. A wealth of information was collected on each cohort mem ber during the preseason interview. A contact rate of 90% was achieved during the weekly follow-up phase. Post-season questionnaires were co mpleted by 76% of the players and 88% of the coaches. Recommendations are made for the use of this methodology by other researchers and futu re directions for RIPP are described.