High compliance with the injury prevention exercise programme Knee Control is associated with a greater injury preventive effect in male, but not in female, youth floorball players.

This study looked at whether how much youth floorball players actually used the Knee Control injury prevention exercise programme was linked to how many injuries they had. It followed 301 players aged 12-17 (107 female) over one season as part of a larger cluster randomised controlled trial, with players and coaches self-reporting exposure, injuries, and programme use weekly or monthly. Overall, players who did the programme at least twice a week had a lower prevalence of injuries and of substantial injuries than those doing it less than once a week, though total injury incidence did not differ between compliance groups. When split by sex, this dose-response pattern held for male players but not for female players, where no differences were seen across compliance groups.

Teams with higher overall compliance also showed better fidelity in how they used the programme, though coach characteristics and baseline expectations did not differ between high and low compliance teams.

This study asked whether floorball players who did their injury prevention exercises more often actually got hurt less. Researchers followed 301 young players, aged 12 to 17, for one season, tracking how often each player and team did the Knee Control programme and how many injuries occurred. Players who did the exercises at least twice a week had fewer injuries overall, and notably fewer serious injuries, compared with players who did them less than once a week.

But when the researchers looked separately at boys and girls, this pattern only held true for boys. Girls who did the programme more often did not show a lower injury rate than girls who did it less. This means the benefit of doing the exercises more frequently was not the same for everyone, and the reasons for this sex difference were not explained by the study.

The findings come from one season and one sport, so it's not clear how well they would carry over to other groups or contexts.

This is a summary of research, not medical advice. Talk to your own healthcare provider about anything affecting your care.

This paper examined dose-response and compliance data nested within a cluster randomised controlled trial of the Knee Control programme in 301 youth floorball players (107 female) over one competitive season, using weekly player-reported exposure and injury data alongside coach-reported programme compliance. Higher player-level dose (at least two sessions per week) was associated with a 35% lower prevalence of injuries overall (adjusted PRR 0.65, 95% CI 0.48-0.89) and a 60% lower prevalence of substantial injuries (adjusted PRR 0.40, 95% CI 0.26-0.61) versus low dose, though total injury incidence did not differ between groups. This dose-response relationship was consistent in male players but absent in female players, an important effect modification that limits generalisation of the preventive signal across sexes.

Team-level compliance did not correlate with coach sex, experience, or baseline expectancies, but higher-compliance teams demonstrated better programme utilisation fidelity, suggesting implementation quality may matter as much as raw session counts. As an observational compliance analysis within a trial framework rather than a randomised comparison of dose itself, these findings represent associational rather than causal evidence, and the sex-specific null result in female players warrants cautious interpretation given the single-season, single-sport design.