How injury registration and preseason assessment are being delivered: an international survey of sports physical therapists

Key points

1. 01Sports PTs are the primary person responsible for injury registration in most athletic organizations
2. 02About 77% of respondents reported barriers to systematically registering injuries, with lack of time cited by 54.77%
3. 03Most sports PTs (74.63%) performed preseason assessment; 22.22% did not, mainly due to lack of organizational structure
4. 04PTs working with male teams were significantly more likely to be employed full-time compared to those working with female teams (OR 2.463, 95% CI 1.1-5.204)
5. 05Only 8.09% of respondents tailored prevention programs to each individual athlete

How it was conducted

Design

Cross-sectional international survey

Platform

LimeSurvey online questionnaire

Participants

Sports physical therapists recruited via the International Federation of Sports Physical Therapy (IFSPT) database

Countries with highest participation

Japan (6 participants, 5.45%), Brazil (63 participants, 5.21%), Canada (40 participants, 9.90%)

Primary outcomes

Injury registration practices and preseason athlete screening practices

Analysis

Descriptive statistics, independent t-test, Pearson chi-square, and odds ratios; significance set at p<0.05

What they found

• Active sports PTs participated in the survey filling at least 50% of questions
• 83.33% of respondents reported the PT as primarily responsible for injury registration
• Only 1.44% indicated their organization did not engage in any type of injury registration
• Barriers to injury registration were indicated by respondents at 77.92%; lack of time was cited by 54.77%, lack of organization/standardization by 15.29%, and lack of resources/interest by 5.74%
• 74.63% of sports PTs performed preseason assessment on their athletes
• 30.09% customized prevention programs based on preseason assessment results generically for the whole team
• 60.9% customized preseason assessment-based prevention programs on an individual basis for high-risk athletes only
• 8.09% applied both strategies depending on athlete level; a further group indicated implementing prevention strategy tailored to each individual athlete
• 22.22% (92 participants) did not perform preseason assessment; 47.82% of that subgroup cited lack of structure in the organization, 45.65% lack of time on sports PT's routine, 36.95% lack of time on athlete's routine
• Sports PTs working with male teams were significantly more likely to work full-time vs those working with female teams (OR 2.463, 95% CI 1.1-5.204, p<0.005)
• Half-time workers had increased likelihood of lacking sufficient financial resources (OR not fully stated but p=0.04)
• Mean age of participants was 37.66 (SD 9.38) years; mean work experience was 8.31 (SD 7.0) years
• 76.81% of respondents were male; 23.18% were female
• Top sports covered: soccer (46.85%), basketball, volleyball; 30.9% worked with multiple sports

Limitations

• Results are susceptible to reporting bias as respondents answered based on personal beliefs and perceptions
• Survey dissemination depended on IFSPT member engagement, potentially limiting geographic representativeness
• A minimum experience threshold was not set for inclusion, introducing heterogeneity in respondents' backgrounds
• Self-reported data may not accurately reflect actual organizational practices

Why it matters

For patients

Athletes in teams without systematic injury registration or preseason screening may have preventable re-injuries go undetected because their history and risk profile are not being tracked.

For clinicians

Sports physical therapists can use these findings to advocate for full-time positions and organizational support, and to explore digital tools or shared-responsibility models to overcome time constraints in injury registration.

For readers

This is the first international survey to map sports PT involvement in injury prevention infrastructure, providing a baseline for comparing practices across countries and competition levels.