Merete Moller

• PhD
• Professor (Assistant) at University of Southern Denmark

We aimed to assess the in‐season weekly average prevalence proportion, the incidence rate, and burden (the product of incidence rate and duration of injury in weeks) of health problems among Danish youth handball community players aged 11–17. In this 30‐week prospective cohort study, players self‐reported health problems, including all injuries and...

OBJECTIVES: To (i) compare analgesic use over 36 weeks between endurance athletes, technical athletes, and team athletes, and (ii) explore experiences and sociocultural factors impacting analgesic use. DESIGN: Longitudinal mixed-methods study METHODS: 689 youth elite athletes (44% girls/women, 15-20 years) provided weekly reports on number of days...

The aim of this study was to investigate if an 8‐week high‐volume protocol of the Adductor Strengthening Programme was more effective than a low‐volume protocol in increasing and maintaining isometric hip adduction strength in female football players. We randomized 52 players from the Norwegian women's 1st and 2nd division to a low‐volume (220 reps...

Objectives To assess (1) the 1-year prevalence of previous shoulder, knee and ankle injuries; (2) the in-season prevalence proportion (prevalence) of injuries and illnesses, injury incidence rate (ir) and injury burden (product of ir and weeks with injuries); (3) initial injury management strategies. Methods We conducted a cohort study of 679 high...

Objective To investigate if a combination of an online and onsite implementation strategy was superior to an online-only strategy in enhancing the use of an injury prevention exercise programme (IPEP) and in reducing the risk of shoulder, knee and ankle injuries in youth community handball players (age 11–17) over a handball season. Methods In thi...

Injuries are recognised in sports and exercise medicine as not isolated incidents but complex outcomes. This is because an athlete’s health trajectory is understood to be shaped by dynamic, complex linkages between individual performance, biology, and the wider social and cultural contexts and systems in which individuals perform. Despite this reco...

OBJECTIVE: To investigate analgesic use in a cohort of Danish youth elite athletes and compare weekly analgesic use over 36 weeks to student controls. We also investigated and compared reasons for analgesic use and types of analgesics used. DESIGN: Prospective cohort study. METHODS: Six hundred ninety youth elite athletes (44% females) and 505 stud...

Objective To describe the prevalence, incidence, and burden of groin injuries in the Norwegian women's premier football league and to describe their clinical and imaging characteristics. Methods During the 2020 and 2021 seasons, players in the Norwegian women's premier league reported groin injuries weekly, using the Oslo Sports Trauma Research Ce...

Background In male football, adductor injuries have been reported to account for two thirds of all groin injuries, and therefore, been the focus for prevention. This classification of groin injuries into clinical entities has not yet been utilized in epidemiological studies in professional women’s football. Objective To record all groin injuries i...

Background The efficacy of injury prevention programs is clear, but their causal mechanisms are not. Better knowledge about why injury prevention programs work will improve implementation and guide further research. Objective To describe the proposed biomedical effect mechanisms in research on injury prevention programs in football and handball....

Background To implement injury prevention (IP) effectively in team ball sports, behavioral aspects must be considered. Objective To describe and compare determinants of behavior linked to injuries and IP strategies (IP training, pain and injury management, and load management) in and between youth handball and football. Design Cross-sectional stu...

Background Copenhagen adduction exercise programs reduce groin injury risk and increase hip adductor strength in male footballers in a dose-dependent manner. This has not been studied in female players Objective To investigate if an 8-week high-volume protocol based on the Copenhagen adduction exercise is more effective than a low-volume protocol...

Introduction Injury prevention exercise programs (IPEPs) are insufficiently implemented in practice. We hypothesized that a combination of an online and onsite implementation strategy would be superior to an online-only strategy in enhancing adherence to an injury prevention exercise program (IPEP), and in reducing shoulder, knee and ankle injury r...

Introduction According to the International Olympic Committee, longitudinal data on analgesic use in elite athletes is lacking. We aimed to investigate and compare analgesic use in a cohort of Danish youth elite athletes with student controls. Materials and Methods 690 youth elite athletes and 505 student controls (15-20 years) provided weekly rep...

Introduction Behavioral factors (BFs) are associated with adherence to injury prevention exercise programs (IPEPs). We investigated the effect of adding an onsite implementation strategy to an online-only strategy of an IPEP on handball coachers’ BFs. Materials and Methods In a one-season randomized controlled trial, 20 youth handball clubs were a...

Introduction This study aimed to identify facilitators for implementing injury prevention initiatives in youth handball, and to assess stakeholders’ perceptions of their importance and feasibility. Materials and Methods Four stakeholder groups — coaches, administrators, health staff and players — participated in this mixed-method concept mapping s...

Objectives To describe the prevalence, incidence and burden of all health problems in the Norwegian women’s premier league. Methods During the 2020 and 2021 seasons, players in the Norwegian women’s premier league reported all health problems (sudden-onset injuries, gradual-onset injuries and illnesses) weekly, using the Oslo Sports Trauma Researc...

Background Nordic hamstring test devices are commonly used to measure maximal eccentric hamstring force. The ability to control the final phase of the exercise has been adopted as a criterion to add weight when testing, without substantial evidence. We investigated if adding weight affected the maximal force measured, and if there were differences...

I et eksplorativt interviewstudie undersøgte vi, hvad der har betydning for unges oplevelse af sjov inden for foreningssport samt eventuelle forskelle og ligheder inden for individuel sport og holdsport. Undersøgelsen viste, at fællesskabet, stemningen, relationer, følelsen af at kende og acceptere hinanden samt vejret påvirker oplevelsen af sjov....

Introduction The primary aim of this study was to describe the clinical entities and imaging characteristics of groin injuries in women’s football. Materials and Methods During the 2020 and 2021 seasons, players in the Norwegian women’s premier football league reported groin injuries weekly, using the Oslo Sports Trauma Research Center Questionnai...

Introduction Previous epidemiological studies in women’s football have used methods inappropriate to capture overuse injuries and illnesses. The aim of this study was to describe the injury and illness patterns in women’s premier league football. Materials and Methods During the 2020 and 2021 seasons players in the women’s premier football league...

Objectives To identify the prevalence, frequency, adverse effects, and reasons for analgesic use in youth athletes. Design Systematic review and meta-analysis. Methods Systematic searches in Embase, Medline, and SPORT-Discus from inception to September 2021, screening of reference lists, and citation tracking were performed to identify observatio...

The evidence-based hamstring strengthening programme for prevention of hamstring injuries is not adopted by football teams because of its high training volume. This study on female football players investigated if high-volume training with the Nordic hamstring exercise is more effective on hamstring strength, jump height, and sprint performance tha...

Although it is advocated that end-users are engaged in developing evidence-based injury prevention training to enhance the implementation, this rarely happens. The ‘Implementing injury Prevention training ROutines in TEams and Clubs in youth Team handball (I-PROTECT)’ uses an ecological participatory design incorporating the perspectives of multipl...

Synopsis: There is an absence of high-quality evidence to support rehabilitation and return-to-sport decisions following shoulder injuries in athletes. The Athlete Shoulder Consensus Group was convened to lead a consensus process that aimed to produce best-practice guidance for clinicians, athletes, and coaches for managing shoulder injuries in sp...

Session rating of perceived exertion (sRPE) is a subjective self-reported measure of training load and is a popular method in several different team sports. This study aimed to investigate the validity of sRPE, by correlating sRPE load (sRPE × minutes of training) and heart rate (HR) expressed as Edwards Summated Heart Rate Zones (SHRZ) and PlayerL...

Objectives To determine the 4-week prevalence of pain medication use in youth athletes, the type of medication used, the reasons for use and from where the athletes obtained the medication. Methods 466 handball players (aged 14-18) were surveyed about their pain medication use within the preceding 4 weeks. The questionnaire consisted of 3 parts; t...

Background Shoulder rotation strength deficit measured at one time-point during preseason has been investigated as a risk factor for shoulder problems in sports with conflicting results. However, athletes face changes in physical demands and accumulative training exposure during a season, which likely influence their rotation strength over this per...

Shoulder injuries are a common problem in handball. One likely cause of such injuries is excessive throwing. However, it is difficult to measure the number of player throws in large cohort studies using existing methods accurately. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to develop and validate a method for identifying overhead throws using a low-c...

Objectives We aimed to determine the use of injury prevention exercises and injury prevention exercise programs in Danish youth handball and investigate coach and player experiences, beliefs and attitudes of injury and their prevention. Design A mixed-methods design consisting of cross-sectional quantitative surveys and qualitative interviews. Me...

Shoulder injuries are a common problem in handball. One likely cause of such injuries is excessive throwing. However, it is difficult to measure the number of player throws in large cohort studies using existing methods accurately. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to develop and validate a method for identifying overhead throws using a low-c...

Throwing speed is likely a key determinant of shoulder-specific load. However, it is difficult to estimate the speed of throws in handball in field-based settings with many players due to limitations in current technology. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to develop a novel method to estimate throwing speed in handball using a low-cost acce...

Understanding the shoulder-specific load in handball is important for both prevention and rehabilitation of shoulder injuries. The shoulder-specific load is largely a result of the number and speed of throws. However, it is difficult to quantify number and speed of throws in handball due to limitations in the current technology. Therefore, the purp...

Objective: To investigate change in shoulder rotation strength from preseason to midseason during a competitive season in youth elite handball players without shoulder problems. Design: Prospective cohort study. Methods: Players (n = 292, 45% female, 14-18 years of age) without shoulder problems from Danish youth elite handball clubs were asse...

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...

Background It is widely accepted that athletes sustain sports injury if they train ‘too much, too soon’. However, not all athletes are built the same; some can tolerate more training than others. It is for this reason that prescribing the same training programme to all athletes to reduce injury risk is not optimal from a coaching perspective. Rathe...

In 2013, the Oslo Sports Trauma Research Center Overuse Injury Questionnaire (OSTRC-O) was developed to record the magnitude, symptoms and consequences of overuse injuries in sport. Shortly afterwards, a modified version of the OSTRC-O was developed to capture all types of injuries and illnesses—The Oslo Sports Trauma Research Center Questionnaire...

Introduction: A significant step towards sport-related injury prevention is the introduction of easily accessible smartphone applications (apps). However, it is unknown whether this type of app-based instruction facilitates similar acute neuromuscular and biomechanical characteristics of the preventive exercises as achieved when instructed on-site...

In recent years a number of studies have investigated shoulder biomechanics in handball throwing. The purpose of this scoping review is to summarize the current handball research in terms of shoulder joint kinematics and kinetics and identify gaps in the current research. Nineteen articles relevant to this topic were identified and included. The ha...

Background ‘How much change in training load is too much before injury is sustained, among different athletes?’ is a key question in sports medicine and sports science. To address this question the investigator/practitioner must analyse exposure variables that change over time, such as change in training load. Very few studies have included time-va...

Background Time-to-event modelling is underutilised in sports injury research. Still, sports injury researchers have been encouraged to consider time-to-event analyses as a powerful alternative to other statistical methods. Therefore, it is important to shed light on statistical approaches suitable for analysing training load related key-questions...

This chapter will describe the biomechanics of the upper limb. The main focus will be on the biomechanics of throwing; how the coordination of the trunk, upper arm, lower arm and wrist is important for the optimal throwing performance; and how the observed variations in throwing technique may influence the performance. The last part of the chapter...

The efficacy of injury prevention exercise programs (IPEPs) for handball has been established in large-scale randomized controlled trial. Despite this, these programs are currently not implemented in a real-world context.

As in many youth sports, handball provides kids and adolescents with the opportunity to develop physical fitness including coordination, speed, endurance, agility, power and strength as well as develop social skills. Indisputable, participating in sports activities from a young age has numerous health and social benefits. However, this development...

Background: The high injury incidence during match-play in female adolescent football is a major concern. In football, males and females play matches with the same football size. No studies have investigated the effect of football size on injury incidence in female adolescent football. Thus, the aim of the present study was to investigate the effe...

Objectives To investigate the intra- and interrater reliability and agreement for field-based assessment of scapular control, shoulder range of motion (ROM), and shoulder isometric strength in elite youth athletes. Design Test-retest reliability and agreement study. Setting Eight blinded raters (two for each assessment) assessed players on field...

Introduction The efficacy of knee injury-prevention exercise programs (IPEPs) for handball has been established, however their implementation in Danish youth handball is unknown. This study aimed to assess key IPEP implementation components in Danish youth handball, including coach and player attitudes, beliefs, and experiences. Materials and meth...

Current methods of sports injury surveillance are limited by lack of medical validation of self‐reported injuries and/or incomplete information about injury consequences beyond time loss from sport. The aims of this study were to (a) evaluate the feasibility of the SMS, Phone, and medical Examination injury surveillance ( SPEx ) system (b) to evalu...

The accurate measurement of sport exposure time and injury occurrence is key to effective injury prevention and management. Current measures are limited by their inability to identify all types of sport-related injury, narrow scope of injury information, or lack the perspective of the injured athlete. The aims of the study were to evaluate the prop...

Background Shoulder function and the prevalence of shoulder complaints in elite badminton are not well described. Objective The aims of this study were to compare players who reported previous or present shoulder complaints with those players who did not. Shoulder function and shoulder problems were quantified. And the players reported influence o...

Background Non-traumatic shoulder injuries are common in overhead sports, however many athletes still participate in their sport despite pain. Non-optimal scapula kinematics at the instant of maximal humeral external rotation (HumExtRot) is considered a risk factor in overhead throwing sports. Objective The aim of the study was to investigate whet...

Background Knowledge of injury patterns, an integral step towards injury prevention, is lacking in youth handball. Objective To investigate if an increase in weekly handball participation is associated with increased shoulder injury rates compared with decrease or a minor increase, and if a potential association is influenced by scapular control,...

Background Knowledge of injury patterns, an essential step towards injury prevention, is lacking in youth handball. Aim To investigate if an increase in handball load is associated with increased shoulder injury rates compared with a minor increase or decrease, and if an association is influenced by scapular control, isometric shoulder strength or...

Synopsis: The etiological mechanism underpinning any sports-related injury is complex and multifactorial. Frequently, athletes perceive "excessive training" as the principal factor in their injury, an observation that is biologically plausible yet somewhat ambiguous. If the applied training load is suddenly increased, this may increase the risk fo...

Knee injuries are common in adolescent female football. Self-reported previous knee injury and low Knee injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS) are proposed to predict future knee injuries, but evidence regarding this in adolescent female football is scarce. The aim of this study was to investigate self-reported previous knee injury and low...

Background: Previous studies report varying rates of time-loss injuries in adolescent female soccer, ranging from 2.4 to 5.3 per 1000 athlete-exposures or 2.5 to 3.7 per 1000 hours of exposure. However, these studies collected data using traditional injury reports from coaches or medical staff, with methods that significantly underestimate injury...

Assessment of prevalence and consequences of shoulder pain problems in youth handball is an integral first step towards injury prevention, but the literature is scarce. To evaluate prevalence and impact of shoulder pain problems among youth handball players. Pilot cohort study with 3 months of weekly SMS-based injury registrations based on the OSTR...

To assess the injury incidence in elite handball, and if gender and previous injuries are risk factors for new injuries. Cohort study of 517 male and female elite handball players (age groups under (u)16, u-18 and senior). Participants completed a web survey establishing injury history, demographic information and sports experience, and provided we...