Development and validation of an overuse injury questionnaire for youth athletes: The Youth Overuse Injury Questionnaire

Abstract

Objective: To develop and validate the Youth Overuse Injury Questionnaire (YOvIQ).

Design: A cross-sectional study.

Setting: Online platforms.

Participants: Two content experts (in sports injury epidemiology and in sports science and medicine) and seven end-users (youth volleyball athletes) provided feedback during development of the YOvIQ. 227 competitive youth athletes across 14 different sports assessed the psychometric properties of the YOvIQ.

Main outcome measures: Participants completed both YOvIQ and the Oslo Sports Trauma Research Centre Overuse Injury Questionnaire (OSTRC-O2) for anatomical areas of the shoulder, elbow, lower back, knee, and ankle/foot. Validity was assessed via convergent validity. Reliability was assessed using internal consistency estimation and interclass correlation coefficient.

Results: Following feedback from content experts, examples and quantitative symbolization were added to the options in YOvIQ, with positive feedback from end-users. Convergent validity between YOvIQ and the OSTRC-O2 was demonstrated with non-significant differences (P ≥ .05) and significant correlations (P < 0.001) for prevalence and severity scores. YOvIQ demonstrated internal consistency for prevalence (Cronbach's alpha coefficient >0.70) and moderate-to-good reliability for severity scores (ICC: 0.51 to 0.88) for shoulder, lower back, and knee.

Conclusions: The YOvIQ is a valid and reliable instrument to identify overuse injuries to the shoulder, lower back, and knee in youth athletes.

Keywords: Injury registration; Overuse injury; Youth sports.