846 FO55 – Does a stakeholder informed coaching intervention reduce head-to-head contacts in women’s rugby league?

• Published in: British journal of sports medicine 2024-03, Vol.58 (Suppl 2), p.A34-A34
• Main Authors: Jones, Ben, Owen, Cameron, Spiegelhalter, Mily, Scantlebury, Sean, Heyward, Omar, Brown, James, Backhouse, Susan, Barrow, Stuart, Chesson, Lucy, Fairbank, Laura, Gardner, Andrew, Hendricks, Sharief, Hicks, Robert, Johnston, Richard, Mackreth, Peter, Phillips, Gemma, Rotheram, Dave, Stodter, Anna, Stokes, Keith, Till, Kevin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Concussion; Full Oral Abstracts; Intervention; Rugby
• ISSN: 0306-3674; 1473-0480
• DOI: 10.1136/bjsports-2024-IOC.58

BackgroundConcussion is the most prevalent injury, and poor tackle technique has been identified as the most important and modifiable risk factor in women’s rugby league.ObjectivePhase 1: Report stakeholders perspective of tackler or ball-carrier responsibility for head-to-head contacts, and associated mitigating factors. Phase 2: Evaluate effectiveness of an intervention to reduce head-to-head contacts.DesignProspective cohort studySettingWomen’s rugby leagueParticipantsPhase 1: Thirty-four coaches, players and match officials. Phase 2: Twelve Women Super League (WSL) teams.InterventionsPhase 1: Mitigating factors were identified from reviews of 1,052 video clips of head-to-head contacts. Phase 2: WSL players and staff were presented head-to-head contact rates and Phase 1 findings. WSL coaches were provided resources and in-person visits, relating to tackle technique and head-to-head contact mitigation (informed by Phase 1).Main Outcome MeasurementsPhase 1: Inductive content analysis was completed on open-ended survey responses. Phase 2: Video footage of matches were analysed (matches n=143; tackle events 2021, n=14,378; 2022, n=12,466; 2023, n=12,044). Concussion rates were identified via injury surveillance. Coaches reported tackle-training exposure and resource use via training logs.ResultsPhase 1: The tackler was responsible for head-to-head contacts on 69% of occasions. Example main categories mitigating factors (ranked high-low) were: tackle height, shoulder, footwork, head placement, and body position. Phase 2: Head-to-head contact rates were 53 (95% CI: 49–57), 69 (65–74), and 33 (30–37) per 1,000 tackle events in 2021, 2022 and 2023, respectively. Head-to-head contact rates were significantly lower in 2023 than 2021 (IRR 0.8 [0.7 to 0.8]). Concussion rates in 2021, 2022, 2023 were 9.0, 10.4 and 10.3 per 1,000 match-hours, with no significant differences observed. Forty-five percent of coaches reported using resources provided.ConclusionsHead-to-head contact rates decreased during the intervention year, despite limited reported use of resources, and concussion rates were similar across years.