Jenny Jacobsson

• PhD
• Associate Professor at Linköping University

Sports have been identified as an important contributor to social sustainability, and the benefits for health, well‐being, and social learning in young people are well evidenced. Youth elite sports, however, have been criticized as being unsustainable. Following calls for a more socially sustainable development of youth elite sports, research on th...

Objective Elite para athletes report a high incidence of sports injuries. Research suggests that athletes’ strategies to manage adversities may influence the sports injury risk, but knowledge about para athletes’ coping behaviours and their association with injuries is limited. The aim was to describe the distribution of coping behaviours in Swedis...

Objective: In Athletics (Track and Field), athletes can be affected by injuries, especially in their quest for top performance. Therefore, we aim to provide an overview of the current knowledge about the problem of injuries in Athletics. Main findings: It is necessary to maintain a clear definition of “injury” when stakeholders in Athletics discuss...

Epidemiological studies suggest that psychiatric disorders are as prevalent among high-performance athletes as in general populations, challenging the myth of invulnerability. Despite efforts of sports organisations to highlight the significance of athletes' mental health, it is still many times tough to combine the sports performance ethos with a...

Enabling athletes to achieve peak performances while also maintaining high levels of health is contextually complex. We aim to describe what a ‘health system’ is and apply the essential functions of stewardship, financing, provision of services and resource generation to an Australian high-performance sport context. We introduce a fifth function th...

In this study, we examined knowledge and understanding of sport-related injuries among youth athletics (track and field) athletes and assessed their needs in managing any health problems. Qualitative data were collected via 12 focus groups with youth athletes (16–19 years) studying at Swedish sports high schools with an athletics specialism. All fo...

The combined demands on an adolescence in an elite sports high school can negatively affect mental health (eg, stress, burnout, depression, anxiety). Late adolescence is also when elite-striving athletes typically transition from junior-to-senior level programs. In addition, adolescent elite lean sports athletes have an increased risk of suffering...

Objective: Although injury burden prompts elite athletics (track and field) athletes to engage in injury management, little is known about their health literacy. We investigated musculoskeletal (MS) health literacy in world-leading athletics athletes and associations with prechampionship injury acknowledgement by reduction of training load in diff...

BAKGRUND Sociala medier används av idrottsutövare på alla nivåer, även av elitidrottare som är stora förebilder för ungdomar. En omtalad negativ aspekt av publicering av bilder på sig själv och sin kropp i sociala medier är självobjektifiering, dvs. antagande att ens värde bestäms av ens fysiska utseende och den sexuella attraktion man framkallar....

Objectives To examine whether universal prevention via a digital health platform can reduce the injury incidence in athletics athletes aged 12–15 years and if club size had an influence on the effect of the intervention. Methods This was a cluster randomised trial where young athletics athletes were randomised through their club following stratifi...

This research set out to identify pathways from vulnerability and stressors to depression in a global population of young athletes. Retrospective data were collected at age 18–19 years from Athletics athletes (n = 1322) originating from Africa, Asia, Europe, Oceania, and the Americas. We hypothesised that sports-related and non-sports-related stres...

Psykiskt mående och prestation går hand i hand och för en långsiktig och hållbar elitidrottskarriär är båda delarna centrala och ofta sammanflätade. Det finns idag ett ökat intresse från idrotten att fördjupa sin kunskap kring psykisk hälsa, samtidigt tycker många att det är ett svårt ämne att få grepp om. I denna artikel försöker vi sammanfatta vi...

In applied program settings, such as in natural environment control and education, performance evaluation is usually conducted by evaluators considering both self-comparison and comparison with peers. We have developed the performance outcome scoring template (POS-T) for assessments with high face-validity in these settings. POS-T puts achievements...

Background Physical and sexual abuse victimization have been connected with negative effects on health long after the abuse has stopped. When athletes encounter situations of defeat and entrapment, the likelihood that suicidal ideation will emerge is increased in situations when negative motivational elements are present, for instance, at low level...

Background Sports-related injuries and illnesses in Paralympic sport is a growing concern, but knowledge about the aetiology and risk factors is limited. Objective To describe the annual incidence of injuries and illnesses among Paralympic athletes and to assess risk factors. Design Prospective cohort study. Setting Paralympic athletes Patients...

In applied program settings, such as in natural environment control and education, performance evaluation is usually conducted by evaluators considering both self-comparison and comparison with peers. We have developed the Performance Outcome Scoring Template (POS-T) for assessments with high face-validity in these settings. POS-T puts achievements...

Objectives The aim was to describe the annual incidence and types of musculoskeletal injuries, and to examine factors associated with injury risk. Design A 52-week prospective study in Swedish youth athletics aged 12–15 years. Methods Data on exposure to training and injury were collected from parents/caregivers and youth athletes using a web-sur...

Little is known about provision of medical services to adolescents prior to participating in international top-level sports. This study aimed to investigate experiences of medical service provision among high-level adolescent athletics (track and field) athletes from three continents. A thematic narrative analysis was applied to data collected from...

To examine prevalence of verbal, physical, and sexual abuses in young elite athletes, a cross sectional questionnaire-based survey was conducted during the World Athletics under 20 World Championships. This questionnaire aimed at distinguishing between abuses perpetrated in the context of Athletics from those which were unrelated to Athletics. Four...

Objectives The aim was to describe levels of subjective Health Literacy (HL), and to examine possible differences in prevalence proportions between sexes, age groups and level of educations among youth athletes and their mentors (coaches, parents/caregivers) in Swedish Athletics Design Cross-sectional. Methods Data on subjective HL were collected...

Introduction Sports‐related injuries and illnesses in Paralympic sport (SRIIPS) is a concern, but knowledge about the aetiology and risk factors is limited. The aim of this study was to describe the annual incidence, type and severity of injuries and illnesses among Swedish Paralympic athletes and to assess risk factors. Methods Swedish Paralympic...

High quality sports injury research can facilitate sports injury prevention and treatment. There is scope to improve how our field applies best practice methods—methods matter (greatly!). The 1st METHODS MATTER Meeting, held in January 2019 in Copenhagen, Denmark, was the forum for an international group of researchers with expertise in research me...

Synopsis: High-quality sports injury research can facilitate sports injury prevention and treatment. There is scope to improve how our field applies best-practice methods-methods matter (greatly!). The first METHODS MATTER meeting, held in January 2019 in Copenhagen, Denmark, was the forum for an international group of researchers with expertise i...

The aim of this study was to develop athletics health guidance (AHG) aimed at supporting coaches and parents involved in organised child athletics by providing practical advice and tools for the management of the most common health problems experienced in athletics by the 12 to 15‐year olds. The study used participatory action research (PAR) and an...

Objective To examine associations between suicidal ideation and sexual and physical abuse among active and recently retired elite athletics (track and field) athletes. Methods The study population consisted of all athletes (n=402) selected for a Swedish Athletics team between 2011 and 2017. Data on suicidal ideation, suicidal events (estimated thr...

Objectives: To investigate champion long-distance runners' strategies for managing injury and illness symptoms and staying well. Design: Qualitative research study. Methods: Twelve long-distance runners were interviewed immediately after having competed in World Championships finals. Thematic analysis was used to categorise and structure the d...

Objectives: To investigate whether self-reported health complaints and choice of heat stress prevention strategies during the taper predicted peaking at an athletics championship in hot conditions. Design: Cohort study. Methods: Data on health and heat stress prevention were collected before the 2015 World Athletics Championship in Beijing, Ch...

Background Athletes competing in athletics (track and field) at international level may be participating with underlying undiagnosed life-threatening cardiovascular conditions. Our objective was to analyse variations in pre-participation cardiac evaluation prevalence among athletes participating in two International Association of Athletics Federat...

Background: With increased participation in Paralympic sport, the burden of sports-related injuries and illnesses may increase. However, there is limited knowledge about the epidemiology of sports-related injuries and illnesses in Paralympic sport [SRIIPS]. Objective: To describe among Swedish Paralympic athletes the 1-yr retrospective period pr...

Objectives: To investigate health-related factors associated with self-rated race performance outcomes among recreational long-distance runners. Design: Panel study. Methods: Data were collected from runners one month before and after a community-level race event including distances from 8 to 42.2 km. The primary outcome measure was self-rated...

This exploratory study aimed to investigate whether data from track and field athletes support a conceptual model where the perception of pain affects self-evaluated health directly, yet is also indirectly mediated through personal factors and external stressors. A cross-sectional study was performed among athletes (n = 278) competing at the highes...

Purpose: This review set out to summarise, define, and provide future direction towards the use of performance outcome measures as endpoints in research performed at international benchmark events in athletics. Methods: Scoping review methodology was applied through a search of the PubMed and Sports Discus databases and a systematic article selecti...

Introduction Sports-related injuries and illnesses in Paralympic sport (SRIIPS) is a growing concern, but knowledge about the etiology of SRIIPS is limited. The aim of this study was to prospectively assess the incidence and risk factors of SRIIPS among Swedish Paralympic athletes during 52 weeks. Materials and methods 107 Paralympic athletes week...

The purpose of this study was to describe among Paralympic athletes the 1-year retrospective period prevalence of severe sports-related injuries and illnesses (SRIIPS) and point prevalence of SRIIPS, and to examine possible differences in prevalence proportions of SRIIPS, between athletes with different demographics, and characteristics related to...

Objective To examine associations between lifetime sexual and physical abuse, and the likelihood of injury within and outside sport in athletes involved in competitive athletics. Methods A cross sectional study was performed among the top 10 Swedish athletics athletes using 1 year prevalence of sports and non-sports injuries as the primary outcome...

This study set out to identify factors critical for the usability of electronic data collection in association with championships in individual sports. A qualitative analysis of electronic data collection system usability for collection of data on pre-participation health from athletes and in-competition injury and illness from team physicians was...

Background: International middle- and long-distance running competitions attract millions of spectators in association with city races, world championships, and Olympic Games. It is therefore a major concern that ill health and pain, as a result of sports overuse, lead to numerous hours of lost training and decreased performance in competitive run...

Background: Sport participation is associated with a risk of sports-related injuries and illnesses, and Paralympic athletes' additional medical issues can be a challenge to health care providers and medical staff. However, few prospective studies have assessed sports-related injuries and illnesses in Paralympic sport (SRIIPS) over time. Advances i...

Recognized side effects on health associated with sports participation in youth include overtraining, doping, and exposure to harassment and violence. Many of these effects originate in contexts where young athletes are beginning to make decisions about their sports practices on their own. This study set out to explore knowledge and reasoning about...

Background: Knowledge of sports-related injuries and illnesses in Paralympic sport (SRIIPS) is limited and few studies have longitudinally assessed SRIIPS. An established method to monitor athletes’ health over a longer period is to use self-reports. When combined with modern eHealth applications, large scale epidemiological studies can be pursued....

Engaging in competitive sports as a youth can have many health benefits, but recent studies also report a high risk for injury. The long-term purpose of this Swedish research program is to develop a framework for safe track and field training for young athletes (aged 12-15 years). The aim of this study was to establish what is perceived to contribu...

BACKGROUND Sport participation is associated with a risk of sports-related injuries and illnesses, and Paralympic athletes’ additional medical issues can be a challenge to health care providers and medical staff. However, few prospective studies have assessed sports-related injuries and illnesses in Paralympic sport (SRIIPS) over time. Advances in...

Background: Despite the popularity of the sport, few studies have investigated community-level football injury patterns. This study examines football injuries treated at emergency medical facilities using data from three Swedish counties. An open-cohort design was used based on residents aged 0-59 years in three Swedish counties (pop. 645 520). Da...

Background: Few studies have longitudinally assessed the epidemiology of sports-related injuries and illnesses in Paralympic sport (SRIIPS). Objective: The objective of this study was to develop and test a weekly e-diary for self-reports of SRIIPS in an electronic system specifically adapted for Paralympic athletes with various impairments. Design:...

Background About 2 out of 3 competitive runners sustain at least one health problem every season; most of these problems are non-traumatic injuries with gradual onset. The main known risk indicator for sustaining a new running-related injury episode is a history of a previous injury, suggesting that behavioural habits are part of the causal mechani...

Background International sports bodies are increasingly on the lookout to balance the excitement of elite sport with the risk that is inevitable. For further understanding of these risks, athletes' reports on how sensations of pain, discomfort, and loss of functioning are interpreted and acted upon are vital. Objective To explore what characterize...

Background During the month before world championships in individual sports, about one-third of athletes are disturbed by injury complaints. Athletics athletes reporting a pre-championship gradual-onset injury complaint are known to be at increased risk to sustain an injury at the upcoming competitions. Predictors for in-championship illness and th...

Background Engaging in competitive sports as a youth can have many health benefits, but recent studies also report a disquieting high injury risk. The long-term purpose of a Swedish research program is to develop a framework for safe athletics training among youth athletes (aged 12–15 years). Objective To establish a national consensus of what cau...

Background: Approximately 2 of every 3 competitive runners sustain at least 1 health problem each season. Most of these problems are nontraumatic injuries with gradual onset. The main known risk indicator for sustaining a new running-related injury episode is a history of a previous injury, suggesting that behavioral habits are part of the causal...

Objectives: To determine preparticipation predictors of injury and illness at a major Athletics championship. Methods: A cohort study design was used. Before the 2015 International Association of Athletics Federations World Championships in Athletics, all 207 registered national teams were approached about partaking in a study of preparticipatio...

Purpose Assess exertional heat illness (EHI) history and preparedness in athletes competing in a World Athletics Championships under hot/humid conditions and identify the factors associated with preparedness strategies. Methods Of the 207 registered national teams invited to participate in the study, 50 (24%) accepted. The 957 athletes (49% of all...

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Objective During international athletics championships, the incidence and characteristics of new injuries have been well described: about 10% of registered athletes have a new injury. It seemed also important to understand the complaints of athletes in terms of injuries in the period before and at the start of the championships and potential associ...

Background: Paralympic sport provides sporting opportunities for athletes with a disability, with the Paralympic Games as the main event. Participation in sport is, however, associated with a significant risk for sustaining injuries and illnesses. Our knowledge of sports-related injuries and illnesses in Paralympic sport is very limited and there...

Our knowledge of sports-related injuries in para-sport is limited and there are no data on how Paralympic athletes themselves perceive an injury. The aim of this qualitative study was to explore Paralympic athletes’ perceptions of their experiences of sports-related injuries, risk factors and preventive possibilities. Eighteen Swedish Paralympic at...

Background: Athletes' psychological characteristics are important for understanding sports injury mechanisms. We examined the relevance of psychological factors in an integrated model of overuse injury risk in athletics/track and field. Methods: Swedish track and field athletes (n=278) entering a 12-month injury surveillance in March 2009 were a...

It is today recognized that a large share of manifestations of ill health associated with sports participation is preventable and that a focus should be on implementation of effective prevention programs. One hindrance for implementation of effective preventive measures in sports medicine may be that an update of preventive frameworks to the curren...

To ensure health and well-being for their athletes, sports organi-zations must offer preventive measures against sexual abuse. The aim of this study was to design and evaluate feasibility of a research protocol for cross-sectional epidemiological studies of sexual abuse in athletics. Examination of the requirements on the study of sexual abuse in a...

To determine the health status of athletes before the start of an international athletics championship and to determine whether preparticipation risk factors predicted in-championship injuries. At the beginning of the 2013 International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) World Championships, all registered athletes (n=1784) were invited to...

Consistency in routines for reporting injury has been a focus of development efforts in sports epidemiology for a long time. To gain an improved understanding of current reporting practices, we applied the Injury Definitions Concept Framework (IDCF) in a review of injury reporting in a subset of the field. Meta-narrative review, An analysis of inju...

The organization of sports at the national level has seldom been included in scientific discussions of sports injury prevention. The aim of this study was to develop a model for organization of sports that supports prevention of overuse injuries. The quality function deployment technique was applied in seminars over a two-season period to develop a...

Objectives To explore the performance of retrospective health data collected from athletes before Athletics championships for the analysis of risk factors for in-competition injury and illness (I&I). Methods For the 2013 European Athletics Indoor Championships, a self-report questionnaire (PHQ) was developed to record the health status of 127 athl...

In elite athletics, epidemiological studies covering cross-discipline populations of athletes have reported a heavy burden of injuries related to overuse. Many athletes continue to expose themselves to extensive training and competition loads while suffering from partial time loss injuries (forcing them to change their practice schedules). To exami...

Movement towards sport safety in Athletics through the introduction of preventive strategies requires consensus on definitions and methods for reporting epidemiological data in the various populations of athletes. To define health-related incidents (injuries and illnesses) that should be recorded in epidemiological studies in Athletics, and the cri...

Knowledge is lacking about the associations between sport injuries and components of the female athlete triad. To assess the prevalence of amenorrhea in elite female athletics athletes and if athletes with history of amenorrhea are at higher injury risk than athletes with regular menstrual cycles or on combined oral contraceptives. Cohort study dur...

Understanding how sensations of pain affect health status appraisal among athletics athletes is of importance for prevention of overuse injuries. Identification of psychological mediators of the association opens for new intervention possibilities. To examine psychological mediators of the association between pain and self-reported health in elite...

There is growing evidence that athletes' psychological characteristics are of importance for understanding overuse injuries in sports. To examine the importance of psychological factors as risk indicators for sustaining athletics injuries. Cohort study with 52 weeks duration. Swedish male and female youth and adult elite athletics athletes. Athlete...

Sexual and physical abuse have been reported from all levels of sports. Associations between abuse victimization and sports injury have not been fully investigated. To examine the lifetime prevalence of sexual and physical abuse in elite athletics athletes and explore associations with prevalence of athletics injuries. Cross-sectional study using e...

Sports organisations and sportspersons often suffer from an "autonomy-gap" obstructing implementation of interventions against overuse injuries. This obstruction has been described as the organisation-practice (OP) barrier. To develop an inter-organisational sports safety promotion model targeted at prevention of overuse injuries by identifying ini...

The current injury and illness (I&I) surveillance system in association to athletics championships have to be improved by collecting pre-participation data for risk factors analyses. To evaluate a pre-participation health questionnaire (PHQ) for collecting health status data from athletes for risk factors analyses and to describe incidence and char...

Current sports injury reporting systems lack a common conceptual basis. We propose a conceptual foundation as a basis for the recording of health problems associated with participation in sports, based on the notion of impairment used by the World Health Organization. We provide definitions of sports impairment concepts to represent the perspective...

Objective To estimate the incidence, type and severity of musculoskeletal injuries in youth and adult elite athletics athletes and to explore risk factors for sustaining injuries. Design Prospective cohort study conducted during a 52-week period. Setting Male and female youth and adult athletics athletes ranked in the top 10 in Sweden (n=292). Resu...

Little is known of injury patterns in track and field (athletics). Injury prevalence has been proposed as the most appropriate measure of the injury rate in sports where athletes are at risk for overuse problems. To ascertain 1-year retrospective and current prevalence of injury in elite track and field athletes to help plan injury prevention progr...

Background Athletics is one of the most popular global sports, but little is known of injury patterns among élite athletic athletes. Injury prevalence has been proposed to be the most valid measure of injury burden in sports where athletes practice long hours and are at risk for overuse problems. Objective To compare two different indicators of in...

Background Athletics is one of the most popular global sports, but also one of the most demanding with regard to human physical capacities. There are few prospective epidemiological studies available on athletic injury in populations of élite athletes. Objective To describe annual injury incidence rates among adult and youth elite athletics athlet...

Background Epidemiological studies of injury have mainly been performed on team sports. Present methods for data collection and analysis neglect important features of individual sports. Aims To develop a study protocol for large-scale epidemiological studies of injuries in individual sports, exemplified by athletics. Design Structured information s...

Background While athletes and coaches, government policy-makers, and sports managers need evidence for decision-making, unambiguous terms and definitions for reporting and analyzing sports injuries across settings are lacking. Objective To define unambiguous concepts for reporting sports injuries across settings. Design Meta-analysis of sports in...

Epidemiological studies have mainly been performed on team sports. The authors set out to develop a protocol for large-scale epidemiological studies of injuries among elite athletics athletes. An argument-based method for investigation of complex design problems was used to structure the collection and analysis of data. Specification of the protoco...