Prevalence of sport-relatedanalgesic use in German elite handball Players

Abstract

With its high physical demands on players’ bodies and high rates of injury, elite-level handball constitutes an ideal environment for studying analgesic use. We aimed to investigate the career and season prevalence of sport-related analgesics use among elite youth and elite senior handball players. We explored the frequency of analgesic use on practice and competition days within one season. The sample consisted of 459 elite handball players (233 female, 226 male). Sport-related analgesic use was assessed with two replicable measures of prevalence complemented by two frequency measures. χ2 analyses were performed to determine group differences in prevalences for gender, age group, contract situation, and role within the team. We conducted hierarchical binomial linear regression analyses for the analgesic prevalences to evaluate the prediction of the prevalences from the independent variables. The sport-related career prevalence of analgesic use was 70.7% (95% CI[66.6, 74.9]). Throughout one season, 55.6% (95% CI[51.0-60.1]) of handball players used analgesics. Gender, age, contract status, and role within the team seemed to impact the use of analgesics. Further, analgesics were used significantly more often on competition than on practice days. Our findings indicate that the sport-related use of analgesics is relatively common among elite handball players, with female players, senior players, players with a contract, and perceived rotation players reporting significantly higher career and season prevalences. Therewith, our findings offer a starting point for targeted prevention strategies.