INJURY PATTERNS AMONG NCAA MALE AND FEMALE BASKETBALL PLAYERS

J.C. Vailas, M.J. Moran, L.C. Decoster, J.N. Bernier (Sponsor: R.J. Confessore, FACSM)

The goal of this study was to prospectively observe and compare injury patterns between male and female NCAA athletes. Athletes from 23 basketball teams (194 male, 182 female [376]) were included in this study. During one season, certified athletic trainers recorded injuries and hours of participation on a standard form. An injury was only considered if it caused the athlete to miss one or more practices or games. Exposure hours for the season were roughly the same (p >.05) between males and females. Injuries (151) were sustained by 125 athletes. Injury rate among men was 1.95/1,000 hours, and among women was 2.02/1,000 hours (p=.88). Ninety-five percent of injuries occurred during games. Ankle injuries were most common accounting for 34.2% (52/151) of all injuries. The incidence of knee sprains was near 5% for both men and women (p >.05). Significant differences (p <.05) were found in three areas: 1) More male injuries were classified as strains (28.9%) compared to female injuries (14.7%). 2) More male injuries were classified as overuse injuries (21.1%) than female injuries (8%). 3) More female injuries were classified as season-ending (16%) compared to males (3.9%). There was no difference in physician referral rate. Many studies comparing injury rates between men and women have found significant differences with women usually suffering more injuries than men. Other studies have found injury occurrence to be similar between men and women. Differences between our findings and those of others may be related to the fact that we covered only one season and/or that we included teams from all three NCAA Divisions. A direct comparison of injury rate between this study and the NCAA studies is not possible due to different methods of exposure calculation. The rate is similar to other studies that have used hours of play to calculate exposure. The predominance of ankle injuries is in agreement with other studies of basketball injuries. This study contributes to the body of knowledge concerning collegiate basketball injury patterns, and suggests there may not be a significant difference in overall injury rate between men and women.

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