Injuries in Irish male and female collegiate athletes

Objective: To understand the incidence and burden of injury of student-athletes in four of the most popular collegiate sports. Design: Prospective cohort study. Setting: Collegiate sport. Participants: Gaelic football, hurling/Camogie, soccer and Rugby (n = 672; male = 416, female = 256) student-athletes. Main outcome measure: Injury incidence, burden of injury and total, match and training injury rates, and their 95% confidence intervals were calculated. The frequencies and proportions were also calculated. An injury was defined as any physical condition that prevents a student-athlete from full participation for a period greater than 24 h. Results: Over a quarter (0.266) of student-athletes sustained an injury in the academic season. Male student-athletes had a higher injury rate than females (21.6 vs 11.3 injuries/1000 h). Rugby (20.8 injuries/ 1000 h) had the highest injury rates with hurling/Camogie (6.3 injuries/1000 h) the lowest. Lower extremity injuries were predominant (68.8%) with ankle sprains demonstrating a large burden for all sports (20.6-280.2 days absent/1000 h). Hamstring strains (13.7-118.4 days absent/1000 h) had a large burden for all sports except male Rugby. Knee sprains had a large burden on the female Gaelic footballer (84.8 days absent/1000 h). Sprinting (27.4%) and the tackle (20.1%) were the most common mechanism of injury. Injuries were predominantly moderate (8-28 days) or severe (>28 days) (84.7%). Conclusion: Injury reduction needs to be prioritised in the student-athlete, particularly in males. Specific focus is required on the lower extremity, especially in the hamstring muscles and ankle joint owing to the large burden of injury. (c) 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Automated summary

This study aimed to understand the incidence and burden of injury in student-athletes in four popular collegiate sports. The results showed that male student-athletes had a higher injury rate than females, with Rugby having the highest injury rate and hurling/Camogie the lowest. Lower extremity injuries, especially ankle sprains, were predominant and posed a large burden on student-athletes.