title: Is "football for all" safe for all? Cross-sectional study of disparities as determinants of 1-year injury prevalence in youth football programs.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Football (soccer) is endorsed as a health-promoting physical activity worldwide. When football programs are introduced as part of general health promotion programs, equal access and limitation of pre-participation disparities with regard to injury risk are important. The aim of this study was to explore if disparity with regard to parents' educational level, player body mass index (BMI), and self-reported health are determinants of football injury in community-based football programs, separately or in interaction with age or gender.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Four community football clubs with 1230 youth players agreed to participate in the cross-sectional study during the 2006 season. The study constructs (parents' educational level, player BMI, and self-reported health) were operationalized into questionnaire items. The 1-year prevalence of football injury was defined as the primary outcome measure. Data were collected via a postal survey and analyzed using a series of hierarchical statistical computations investigating associations with the primary outcome measure and interactions between the study variables. The survey was returned by 827 (67.2%) youth players. The 1-year injury prevalence increased with age. For youths with parents with higher formal education, boys reported more injuries and girls reported fewer injuries than expected; for youths with lower educated parents there was a tendency towards the opposite pattern. Youths reporting injuries had higher standardized BMI compared with youths not reporting injuries. Children not reporting full health were slightly overrepresented among those reporting injuries and underrepresented for those reporting no injury.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Pre-participation disparities in terms of parents' educational level, through interaction with gender, BMI, and self-reported general health are associated with increased injury risk in community-based youth football. When introduced as a general health promotion, football associations should adjust community-based youth programs to accommodate children and adolescents with increased pre-participation injury risk.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical and Health Sciences, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden. orjan.dahlstrom@liu.se
authors.forename: Örjan
authors.initials: Ö
authors.lastname: Dahlström
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Backe
authors.forename: Joakim
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ekberg
authors.forename: Staffan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Janson
authors.forename: Toomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Timpka
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001265:Athletic Injuries / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002648:Child; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D012306:Risk; D012449:Safety; D057566:Self Report; D012916:Soccer / Q000293:injuries*