Identification of potential risk factors for lower limb injuries in female team-sport athletes: a prospective cohort study.

The purpose of this prospective cohort study was to assess the associations between lower limb injuries in female team-sport athletes and a number of factors. The potential risk factors explored included (1) lower limb strength, (2) history of life-event stress, (3) family history of ACL injuries, (4) menstrual history, and (5) history of oral contraception use. One hundred and thirty-five female athletes aged between 14 and 31 years (mean: 18.8 ± 3.6 years) from rugby union ( One hundred and nine athletes provided one-year follow-up injury data, of whom, 44 suffered at least one lower limb injury. All athletes who reported high scores for negative life-event stress sustained lower limb injuries. Non-contact lower limb injury was positively associated with weak hip adductor strength (OR: 0.88; 95%CI: 0.78-0.98; History of life event stress, hip adductor strength, and between-limb adductor and abductor strength asymmetries offer potential novel avenues for investigating injury risk factors in female athletes.