Incidence of sports injuries among female athletes at a university in Saudi Arabia: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background: Physical activity has a great impact on health, but inappropriate exercise may result in physical injuries. In Saudi Arabia, most data on sports injuries are mainly from male athletes. Therefore, the aim of this study was to measure the incidence rate and risk factors of sports injury among female athletes at Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University (PNU). Methods: This cross-sectional study enrolled 180 PNU female athletes visiting a university sports club. Athletes were given an online questionnaire with questions about socio-demographic information, the type and duration of regularly performed exercise, whether they follow a healthy diet, warmup and stretching before and after exercise, history of sports injury, and history of emotional stress before the injury. Result: In the studied group, 54.4% of the participants were aged 20 years or younger, and about 69.4% had a normal body mass index. Almost daily exercise was reported by only 42.8%, while 12.2%, 17.2%, and 27.8% of the participants had one, two, and three exercise sessions per week, respectively. The percentages of participants who did some physical preparation before exercise, stretching before exercise, and stretching after exercise were 68.3%, 60.6%, and 78.3%, respectively. Most participants ate healthy food without a dietitian (50.6%), and only 8.9% consulted a dietitian. About 62.2% had a history of sports injury, and the most common injury was bruises (36.1%), followed by unidentified pain (28.3%), and muscle pain (25.6%). A history of emotional stress before the injury was reported by 39.4%. Conclusion: The prevalence of sports injuries among PNU female athletes is significantly high.