Abstract
ObjectivesTo investigate the prevalence of shoulder-related acute and overuse injuries in triathletes and examine the role of possible risk factors, in order to identify potential preventive measures.MethodsWe performed a retrospective epidemiologic study of 193 amateur triathletes between June and August 2013 and evaluated their competition and training habits, as well as the presence of acute and overuse injuries of the shoulder sustained during the past 12 months. Contingency tables were analyzed using Pearson’s chi-squared test. Normally distributed data were compared with the independent samples t-test, while non-parametric analyses were performed with the Mann-Whitney U test. Binary logistic regression was used to identify important predictors of injuries.Results12 participants (6%) sustained acute injuries and 36 athletes experienced an overuse injury. The acute injury rate amounted to 0.11 per 1000 hours of training and the overuse injury rate to 0.33 per 1000 hours of training. There was no association between athletes’ age, height, weight, BMI, a history of shoulder complaints or triathlon experience in years and acute or overuse injuries. Male athletes had a trend for sustaining more acute injuries then female athletes (8% vs. 2%, p = 0.079). Athletes with acute injuries spent a significantly higher amount of time per week doing weight training (p = 0.007) and had a trend for a higher weekly duration of cycling training (p = 0.088). Athletes with overuse injuries participated in a significantly higher number of races compared to athletes without overuse injuries (p = 0.005). The regular use of paddles was associated with a significantly higher rate of overuse injuries (24% vs. 10%, p = 0.014).ConclusionThe regular use of paddles during swimming training appears to be a risk factor for the development of overuse injuries, while an increased duration of weight and cycling training seems to be associated with a higher rate of acute injuries.
Highlights
Triathlon is a multidisciplinary endurance sport that combines swimming, cycling and running.[1]
Male athletes had a trend for sustaining more acute injuries female athletes (8% vs. 2%, p = 0.079)
The regular use of paddles during swimming training appears to be a risk factor for the development of overuse injuries, while an increased duration of weight and cycling training seems to be associated with a higher rate of acute injuries
Summary
Triathlon is a multidisciplinary endurance sport that combines swimming, cycling and running.[1]. Sport-related acute and overuse injuries are common in triathletes, with a reported prevalence of 37–91%.[1, 3, 6, 7] The most common sites of injury identified in triathletes are the lower limb, the back and the shoulder.[1, 3] while the role of a number of intrinsic (internal factors, inherent to the athlete) and extrinsic (external factors, independent of the athlete) risk factors in triathlon-related injuries has been evaluated in the literature, the reported findings have been conflicting, especially regarding the influence of anthropometric parameters, weekly training load and triathlon experience.[2, 3] no studies, to our knowledge, have evaluated in depth the factors associated with acute and overuse injuries of the shoulder caused by triathlon training
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