INJURIES AND EXPOSURE IN MEN'S AND WOMEN'S COLLEGE LACROSSE

Lindsay RH, Decoster LC, Bernier JN, Vailas JC

The purpose of this study was to collect injury tracking data on NCAA lacrosse players from New England colleges and universities to provide insight into lacrosse injury patterns.

Methods: Three hundred forty eight athletes from ten women's and seven men's teams volunteered to be followed with regard to injuries throughout the 1995 season. The 161 men (age = 18.9 +1.39yrs, height = 1.83 + .85m, weight = 84.05 +10.44kg) and 187 women (age = 18.7 +1.27yrs, height = 1.69 + .87m, weight = 63.94 +9.5kg) included in the study represent 86% of the total participants on these teams. Certified athletic trainers associated with each team prospectively recorded injuries on a standard form during the 1995 season, including pre- and postseason play. Only injuries which required the athlete to miss at least one practice or game were included in the statistical analysis. To account for exposure differences, athletic trainers also recorded hours of practice and game participation. Injury data were analyzed per 1000 player-hours of exposure. When appropriate, chi square tests for independence were used.

Results: Males sustained significantly more (p=<.001) injuries (92, or .6 per 1000 player-hours), than females, who sustained 42 injuries (.2 per 1000 player-hours). The knee was the most common site of injury in males (15.2%, 14/92), while the thigh was most commonly injured in females (28.6%, 12/42). The thigh was also the most common site of injury overall (18.8%, 25/134). Of the 134 injuries in 100 athletes, 44% (59) resulted in the athlete missing a week or more of practices or games. The results also indicated that mechanism of injury was dependent on gender (p=<.05), with contact injuries more common in males, and spontaneous (unknown cause) injuries more common in females.

Discussion: Because of the vast differences between men's and women's lacrosse, this study does not focus on the difference in injury rates between them. However, it was significant, and allows the conclusion to be drawn that the men's contact game carries more risk of athletic injury than the women's game. Further, comparisons of our results to other injury surveillance studies show men's lacrosse to have higher risk than high school football, soccer and tennis, and less than rugby. Risk in women's lacrosse seems to be comparable to soccer. The results of this study better our understanding of injury patterns among collegiate lacrosse players, and contribute to the larger database of injury information within other sports.

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