MEDIAL COLLATERAL LIGAMENT KNEE SPRAINS IN COLLEGE FOOTBALL - EFFECTIVENESS OF PREVENTIVE BRACES

This is the second of 2 articles on a 3-year investigation of medial c ollateral ligament sprains of the knee to assess the effectiveness of prophylactic knee braces in NCAA Division I college football players. Position, string, type of session, and daily brace wear were recorded. The injury rates for braced and unbraced knees were used to create an incidence density ratio. The data were stratified and simultaneously controlled for position, string, and session and evaluated for their s tatistical significance. The 987 Big Ten players generated 155,772 kne e exposures over the study period (50% braced). Noticeable differences existed in the rates of injury for the braced and unbraced knees in a lmost every position during practices, depending on player or nonplaye r status. When the influential factors of position, string, and sessio n are considered, there is a consistent but not statistically signific ant tendency for the players wearing preventive knee braces to experie nce a lower injury rate than for their unbraced counterparts. For star ters and substitutes in the line positions, as well as the linebackers and tight ends, there was a consistent trend toward a lower injury ra te in both practices and games. The braced players in the skill positi ons (backs/kickers), at least during games, exhibited a higher injury rate.