Athletes’ experiences of using a self-directed psychological support, the BAck iN the Game (BANG) smartphone application, during rehabilitation for return to sports following anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction

Ringberg, M; Eldh, AC; Ardern, Clare; Kvist, J

doi:10.26181/24419956.v1

Athletes’ experiences of using a self-directed psychological support, the BAck iN the Game (BANG) smartphone application, during rehabilitation for return to sports following anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction

journal contribution

posted on 2023-10-23, 05:41 authored by M Ringberg, AC Eldh, Clare ArdernClare Ardern, J Kvist

Background: Following anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR), many athletes do not return to their sport, often driven by concerns about re-injury. Psychological support strategies might help, but are not routinely included in rehabilitation after ACLR. The BAck iN the Game (BANG) intervention is a 24-week eHealth program delivered via smartphone application (app), beginning directly after ACLR, with a self-directed approach that aims to target the specific challenges athletes encounter in rehabilitation. Aim: To describe athletes’ experiences of using the BANG app during rehabilitation, to support returning to sport following ACLR. Method: Participants were athletes, in contact and/or non-contact pivoting sports, who had ACLR with the goal to return to sports. Semi-structured, individual interviews were conducted 6–10 months after their ACLR; all had access to the BANG intervention. Verbatim transcripts were analysed with a qualitative content analysis. Results: The 19 participants were 17–30 years, mean 21.6 years (SD 3.5); 7 men and 12 women. The analysis generated three main categories. (A) Interacting with the app illustrated how, when, or why the participants engaged with the app. The app was helpful because of its varying content, the notifications served as reminders and participants stopped using the app when no longer needing it. (B) Challenging experiences with the app illustrated that the app itself came with some difficulties e.g., content not appearing with the right timing and material not tailored to their sport. (C) Supportive experiences with the app reflected how the app facilitated the participants’ rehabilitation progress; it included positive aspects of the app content and navigation, boosting their confidence to return to sport, and motivated them to continue with rehabilitation. Conclusion: The analysis of the interviews illustrates athletes’ awareness in interacting with, and the challenging and supportive experiences of using the app. The BANG app might provide support for returning to sport, primarily psychological support, as an adjunct to regular physiotherapy-guided rehabilitation. Athletes’ experiences of the BANG app could be improved by healthcare professionals providing additional advice about when to use which content and why.

Funding

This study was supported by the following resources: Swedish Research Council (2015–03687, 2018–02563), Swedish Research Council for Sport Science (18-2016, D2018-0041, P2018-0180, P2019-0174, FO2019-0018, P2020-0055), Medical Research Council of Southeast Sweden, (859451, 941177, 969549, 982070), Östergötland County (LIO-729161), Australian National Health & Medical Research Council (GNT1109779), and American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine (SKG2015-1).

History

Publication Date

2023-09-19

Journal

BMC Sports Science, Medicine and Rehabilitation

Volume

15

Article Number

113

Pagination

10p.

Publisher

Springer Nature

ISSN

1758-2555

Rights Statement

© The Author(s) 2023. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.