Better late than never .. this one was published some months ago, but we failed to share it yet. The “Strengthen Your Ankle” neuromuscular training program has been thoroughly studied over the past 8 years. This process evaluation is a part of a randomized controlled trial that examined both the short- and long-term effectiveness of this particular program. Although it was shown previously that the program, available both in a printed booklet and as a mobile app, is able to effectively reduce the number of recurrent ankle sprains, participants’ compliance with the program is an ongoing challenge. This process evaluation explored participants’ opinions regarding both methods of delivery.
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Preventing recurrent ankle sprains: the implementation effectiveness of the ‘strengthen your ankle’ app
Last Tuesday Miriam van Reijen successfully defense her PhD Thesis “Preventing recurrent ankle sprains: the implementation effectiveness of the ‘strengthen your ankle’ app”. In her project she set out to investigate whether an effective intervention disseminated through an app helps to increase compliance to the prescribed program. Turns it does not help as much as much as we imagined.
Read MoreInteractive apps are not necessarily the better choice for the implementation of injury prevention programs
Implementation of an effective ankle injury prevention program through either an interactive App or a Booklet, showed similar outcomes on the short and the long run. Not only did both methods result in comparable compliance rates during the 8 weeks of the program, both methods also led to comparable ankle sprain recurrence rates and costs after one year of follow-up. Both the App and the Booklet can be used successfully and with the same cost efficiency. Apps are, as such, not necessarily always better.
Read MoreNo difference in cost and effects between an app-based and paper-based injury prevention program
It has been a bit quiet lately, but we have not been laying back. Just released in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports, our cost-effectiveness analysis that compares a mobile App versus a paper-based injury prevention program.
Read MoreZonMw Pearl for Evert Verhagen
Approximately 187 million euros per year. These are the societal costs of ankle sprains in the Netherlands. For this reason alone effective prevention is of great importance. The Strengthen your Ankle project - within the programme Sport of the Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development (ZonMw) - resulted in two accessible tools that support this important goal. For these results projectleader Evert Verhagen received a ZonMw Pearl on November 3, 2016 ... but this was a huge team effort!
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