Sports injuries in Finnish elite cross-country skiers, swimmers, long-distance runners and soccer players
Published in
Tieteellinen tutkimus ORTONin julkaisusarja. A,Authors
Date
2011Discipline
LiikuntalääketiedeIn sports with different exercise-loading characteristics, acute and overuse injury
profiles and gender differences in injuries were investigated. In addition, trainingrelated
risk factors for overuse injuries in endurance athletes were studied. This
twelve-month retrospective questionnaire study comprised Finnish elite crosscountry
skiers (n=149), swimmers (n=154), long-distance runners (n=143) and soccer
players (n=128) aged 15–35 years. Questionnaires were sent to the athletes in each
sports at the end of the 2006 competition season. Athletes who ended their sports
career because of injury were studied in more detail by means of a telephone
interview (n=20) 7-11 months after the questionnaire. Over 70% of soccer players and
one-third of endurance athletes had sustained at least one acute injury during the
past twelve months. In soccer players and cross-country skiers the most common
acute injury site was the ankle. In skiers, acute and overuse injuries occurred mainly
in sports other than their own sports and the same was true for acute injuries in
swimmers. However, overuse injuries in swimmers mainly originated from
swimming, with the shoulder region as the most common anatomical site. Nearly
every second athlete reported at least one overuse injury, with the highest injury
frequency, most commonly in the foot, occurring among long-distance runners.
Soccer players and runners reported absences of nearly two months on average from
training and competitions owing to acute or overuse injury. Male athletes had higher
prevalence of at least one acute injury, and among runners males had more
commonly at least one overuse injury than females. Among endurance athletes,
vigorous training, defined as more than 700 hours/year, and rest and recovery time
of less than two days a week in the training season predisposed to overuse injury.
Older athletes had higher risk for overuse injury, and especially tendon overuse
injury. Female athletes (13%) ended their career more often because of injury than
male athletes (5%). The most prevalent injury was in the knee, shoulder or ankle.
Most sports career terminators (70%) reported injury-related mild or moderate
permanent disability. In conclusion, type of loading was strongly associated with the
anatomical location of an overuse injury. In cross-country skiing and swimming a
significant proportion of acute injuries occurred in other than the athlete’s main
sports. Vigorous athletic training without sufficient rest and recovery time may be a
risk factor for an injury, especially an overuse injury. Severe injuries may terminate
an athlete´s sports career and cause permanent disability.
...


Publisher
University of JyväskyläISBN
978-952-9657-61-2ISSN Search the Publication Forum
1455-1330Keywords
Metadata
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