TY - JOUR
T1 - Injury epidemiology in male and female competitive diving athletes
T2 - A four-year observational study
AU - Currie, Benjamin M
AU - Hetherington, Michael
AU - Waddington, Gordon
AU - Brown, Nicholas A T
AU - Drew, Michael K
AU - Witchalls, Jeremy
AU - Toohey, Liam A
N1 - Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.
Funding Information:
The authors thank the sports and exercise physicians and physiotherapists that work with Diving Australia programmes for the collection of injury records used within this research. We also acknowledge Diving Australia, the Queensland Academy of Sport, the University of Canberra for the scholarship awarded to the lead author (BC), and the Australian Institute of Sport for the in-kind support provided to the research team.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 The Authors
PY - 2024/8/26
Y1 - 2024/8/26
N2 - OBJECTIVES: To describe the incidence, severity, burden and sport specific characteristics of injuries reported in elite diving athletes.DESIGN: Descriptive epidemiology study.METHODS: Medical attention and time-loss injuries from 63 (43 female, 20 male) Australian national diving programme athletes were prospectively collected over four seasons (September 2018-August 2022). Injury incidence rates and burden were calculated, standardised per 365 athlete days, and compared across groups using negative binomial generalised linear models.RESULTS: In total 421 injuries were reported (female = 292, male = 129) at an injury incidence rate of 2.36 (95 % confidence interval = 2.14-2.60) per 365 athlete days. Annual injury prevalence ranged from 70.0 to 85.1 %. Approximately two-thirds of injuries (67.2 %) resulted in a period of time-loss. The overall injury burden was 91 days of absence (95 % confidence interval = 81-102) per 365 athlete days. Stress fractures in springboard diving athletes incurred the largest mean days of time-loss compared to other injured tissue types. The majority of injuries were reported to occur during training (79.3 %) as opposed to competition (2.4 %), with more than half (55.3 %) of all reported injuries occurring during pool training sessions. Water entry (30.4 %) or take-off (27.8 %) were the most frequently reported mechanism of injury.CONCLUSIONS: Annual injury prevalence reported in competitive Australian diving athletes was found to be high. Contrary to existing literature, competitive diving injuries were reported to occur within the daily training environment, with few injuries occurring during competition. Notable injury differences between springboard and platform athletes were observed.
AB - OBJECTIVES: To describe the incidence, severity, burden and sport specific characteristics of injuries reported in elite diving athletes.DESIGN: Descriptive epidemiology study.METHODS: Medical attention and time-loss injuries from 63 (43 female, 20 male) Australian national diving programme athletes were prospectively collected over four seasons (September 2018-August 2022). Injury incidence rates and burden were calculated, standardised per 365 athlete days, and compared across groups using negative binomial generalised linear models.RESULTS: In total 421 injuries were reported (female = 292, male = 129) at an injury incidence rate of 2.36 (95 % confidence interval = 2.14-2.60) per 365 athlete days. Annual injury prevalence ranged from 70.0 to 85.1 %. Approximately two-thirds of injuries (67.2 %) resulted in a period of time-loss. The overall injury burden was 91 days of absence (95 % confidence interval = 81-102) per 365 athlete days. Stress fractures in springboard diving athletes incurred the largest mean days of time-loss compared to other injured tissue types. The majority of injuries were reported to occur during training (79.3 %) as opposed to competition (2.4 %), with more than half (55.3 %) of all reported injuries occurring during pool training sessions. Water entry (30.4 %) or take-off (27.8 %) were the most frequently reported mechanism of injury.CONCLUSIONS: Annual injury prevalence reported in competitive Australian diving athletes was found to be high. Contrary to existing literature, competitive diving injuries were reported to occur within the daily training environment, with few injuries occurring during competition. Notable injury differences between springboard and platform athletes were observed.
KW - Aquatic
KW - Athletes
KW - Health
KW - Sports
KW - “Wounds and injuries”
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85203828972&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jsams.2024.08.204
DO - 10.1016/j.jsams.2024.08.204
M3 - Article
C2 - 39277492
SN - 1440-2440
SP - 1
EP - 7
JO - Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport
JF - Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport
ER -