Cricket-related injury epidemiology among the women in New Zealand

Abstract

Background: Although women’s cricket has been played since the 17th century, the growth in its popularity rose since the inauguration of the 2015 Australian women’s big bash league. The international appreciation of women’s cricket has also spread to New Zealand (NZ). While women’s cricket participation contributes to their physical health and mental well-being, it also needs to be monitored for reducing nationwide cricket-related injury prevalence. Therefore the aim of this study was to quantify cricket-related injury epidemiology among women in NZ from the years 2005 to 2016. Methods: Cricket-related injury data were obtained from the NZ Accident Compensation Corporation for all females resident in NZ during the 12 years. The age-standardised injury incidence (ASII) per 10,000 people-years was calculated using the 2020 NZ population standard and the estimated population projection for each consecutive year. Injuries were also calculated for estimating prevalence and classified into injured body areas, injury type and diagnosis. Results: Among the women, a sum of 9350 cricket-related injuries were recorded. The ASII increased from 3.1 injuries in 2005 to 3.7 injuries in 2016 - per 10,000 people-years. Women of the age groups 10-14 years (23.2%) and 15-19 years (19.6%) recorded the highest cricket-related injury prevalence. A majority of the injuries were due to contact (72.8%), and only 26.4% injuries occurred due to non-contact. The head (15.3%) was more prone to sustain an injury, followed by the hand (13%) and knee (10.7%). Among the head injuries, 33.6% of injuries were dental injuries. Discussion: The findings of the study suggest that there is a non-significant increase in cricket-related injury incidence among women in NZ. While the increase in injury incidence is not alarming, precaution is needed to reduce the risk of facial and head injuries. Cricket is considered as a sport with a lower predisposition to contact injuries, but the results suggest that there is a strong need for injury prevention programmes aimed at reducing the prevalence of contact type injuries among women in NZ. The high percentage of dental injuries imply that wearing protective headgear is not strictly followed among all levels of the sport across the country, and it reinforces the need for a stricter rule to reduce head injury prevalence. Conflict of interest statement: My co-authors and I acknowledge that we have no conflict of interest of relevance to the submission of this abstract