Injury And Illness During A Four-day High School Netball Tournament: A Cross-sectional Study Of 1357 Players

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Literature on the epidemiology of injury and illness in youth netballers is limited. PURPOSE: To determine incidence, types and severity of injuries and illness in netballers during a 4-day tournament. Association between severity of injury/illness and potential risk factors (RFs) was also determined. METHODS: Cross-sectional observational study at the 2019 Waterkloof High School netball tournament, South Africa. Injury data: body region, body area, specific diagnosis, tissue type, mechanism of injury and severity. Illness data: body system, presenting symptoms, specific diagnosis and severity. RF analyses included age, position played, match stage, previous injury, sleep, use of protective gear and recovery method. We report incidence of injury (encounters/1000 player-hours; 95% CI) and illness (encounters/1000 player-days; 95% CI). Days lost, i.e., severity (% time-loss) were categorised as slight (0-1d), minimal (2-3d), mild (4-7d), moderate (8-28d), and severe (29-84d). RESULTS: In total 1357 females (13-19 yrs) from 49 schools participated. Injury incidence per 6552 player-hours was 20.91 (17.41-24.41). The u/16 group had the highest number of injuries (29%). Most injuries occurred to ankle (29%) and foot (15%). Most frequent specific diagnosis was lateral ankle ligament sprain (26%). Commonly injured tissue types were ligament/joint capsule (48%) and skin/superficial tissue (19%). Mechanism of injury was primarily incorrect landing (23%). Injury severity was mainly slight (46%), with the moderate-severe category contributing 13%. RFs associated with injury severity were not significant. Illness incidence per 8232 player-days was 0.55 (0.25-0.85). Most frequently reported body systems were digestive (39%) and respiratory (15%) and symptoms were pain (31%) and vomiting (23%). Most players had <1-day illness time-loss (39%). Due to low number of illnesses, RF analyses could not be performed. CONCLUSIONS: Almost 1/3 of diagnosed injuries was lateral ankle ligament sprains. The digestive and respiratory systems contributed >50% of illness. Most players presenting with a medical encounter lost 0-1 days. No potential injury RFs had a significant relationship to severity. An urgent need exists to develop targeted injury and illness prevention strategies in youth netballers.