A comparison of injury rates in Masters Athletes across different sports

Abstract

Background: In order to decrease the number of complications attributed to obesity and inactivity it is important to increase the proportion of older individuals participating in regular physical activity such as to increase participation in master’s sports, however it is likely that individuals in this age group may be more wary of injuries compared to younger populations. The aim of the research was to assess the injury rates within the major sports from the 2010 Pan Pacific Masters Games and then compare them with injury rates in youth sports and sports across all age groups. Methods: 1590 athletes (739 males: age mean=50.82 years, SD±9.38, range=25–83 and 851 females: age mean=47.63 years, SD±8.41, range=25–79) competing at the 2010 Pan Pacific Masters Games completed an online survey regarding injuries received during training within three months prior to the competition and these data were compared to rates reported by a number of other injury surveillance data sets. Results: The total injury rate reported for all sports was 13% compared to 54% from the NSW Youth Sports Injury Report, <10% by the SA Injury Report and 0.24% by theAUS SportHospitalisations Report. The injury rates for popular sports were athletics (32%), touch (24%), swimming (17%), basketball (17%), netball (16%), baseball (14%), soccer (11%), hockey (8%), softball (7%) and dragon boats (5%). This order differed to the NSWYouth Sport Injury Report with an order of netball (33%), hockey (32%), soccer (25%), basketball (21%), athletics (20%), baseball (18%), touch (9%) and (9%. The SA Injury Report had an order of soccer (27%), softball (18%), baseball (11%), touch (11%), hockey (10%), swimming (9%) and netball (5%). The AUS Hospitalisations Report order was soccer (0.24%), basketball (0.16%), netball (0.15%), swimming (0.15%), touch (0.12%) and hockey (0.11%). The SA Injury Report listed those injuries which occurred within the week prior to the administration of the survey while the NSW Youth Injury Report listed injuries which occurred up to six months prior to the survey. Discussion: The injury rates present in masters sport differs from that of youth sport and open age sports. When the timeframe of injuries in each of the surveys is taken into account the overall injury rate of master’s sport is lower than that of youth sport and open age sport. Furthermore, sports characterised by a high range of injury in youth and open age sport differ significantly from those present in master’s sport.