Women athletes have a higher chance of serious knee injuries, and there is less support on the sidelines.
Edith Cowan University (ECU) is partnering with the Orthopaedic Research Foundation of Western Australia to improve health outcomes for women athletes, particularly younger athletes.
Lead researcher, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Sport) and Professor of Human Performance, Professor Sophia Nimphius said the partnership would focus on getting context specifics right for women athletes.
"There's been a lot of talk around the differences in ACL injury rates between men's and women's sports, often followed by an unfortunate focus on hormone tracking as a cure-all for women's sport.
"While women's health, and understanding a healthy hormonal profile, should absolutely be part of education and consideration for women and girls in sport (and life), it must not come at the cost of addressing the real issue: we have yet to properly support female athletes in their long-term development and in achieving the level of care they deserve through their career and if injury does occur, in their return to play."
ECU Co-investigator, Post Doctoral Research Fellow Dr Myles Murphy said the differences in resourcing for women's sport impacts their chances of rehabilitation success.
"When a men's program athlete is injured, they are much more likely to have strength and conditioning coaches, physiotherapists, and doctors all on hand to ensure an amazing rehabilitation. The assumption is typically that men will return to the sport post injury. The same can't be said for women athletes.
"Women athletes have a higher chance of serious knee injuries, and there is less support on the sidelines. This partnership is aiming to change that. It is aimed at figuring out the contextual elements and trying to provide rehabilitation that is more contextually specific to women athletes compared with the stock-standard recipes currently given," Dr Murphy said.
Dr Murphy noted that current rehabilitation was often heavily focused on gym programming, however, research in adolescents has proven that young women and girls often feel uncomfortable in going into a gym environment, particularly by themselves.
"If we don't take the contextual elements of being an athlete in a women’s program into account, how can we expect favourable outcomes? Or outcomes that are equal to that of men's programs? We rarely consider the restraints on women athletes and the lack of structural support around them. This has to change."
Director of the Orthopaedic Research Foundation of Western Australia, Sports Orthopaedic Surgeon Associate Professor Peter D'Alessandro is excited to see the outcomes of this research and to work with the internationally recognised team at ECU.
"We are delighted to be partnering with ECU for this study. With Prof Nimphius and Dr Murphy alongside my ORFWA colleagues Dr Jay Ebert and Dr Peter Edwards, we have assembled a world class team who are global leaders in ACL research for this crucial project. The rate of ACL injury and re-injury in women and girl athletes is too high-and simply needs to improve.
Associate Professor D'Alessandro emphasised the additional challenges that women and girl athletes have in returning to sport after ACL injury, in a large part due to lack of tailored surgery, rehabilitation, resourcing and support.
"We are determined to level the playing field and are confident that this study will be a catalyst for positive change. We aim to empower our surgical and allied health teams as we strive to improve our prevention programs, surgical techniques and rehabilitation protocols. This targeted approach has the potential to significantly improve outcomes, reduce the risk of injury/re-injury and keep our women and girl athletes on the field playing the sports they love."
The research partnership will span between 2025 and 2028.
