ORIGINAL ARTICLE   

Gazzetta Medica Italiana - Archivio per le Scienze Mediche 2021 December;180(12):842-9

DOI: 10.23736/S0393-3660.20.04325-9

Copyright © 2020 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Epidemiology of pain and injury in elementary school-aged badminton players

Xiao ZHOU ¹, Kazuhiro IMAI ¹ ✉, Xiao-Xuan LIU ¹, Eiji WATANABE ²

¹ Department of Life Sciences, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan; ² Institute of Sport, Senshu University, Kawasaki, Japan

BACKGROUND: For developing prevention programs of badminton injuries, epidemiological data on incidence in elementary school-aged players should be well investigated. The purpose of this study was to investigate the distribution of pain and injuries, identify injury incidence in elementary school-aged badminton players of 7 to 12 years old.
METHODS: Distribution of badminton pain and injury were investigated to identify the injury incidence in 510 elementary school-aged (7- to 12-year-olds) badminton players including 217 male and 293 female players. The questionnaire included badminton experience, duration of training, and pain/injury associated with badminton. The main outcome measures were pain and injury proportions by anatomical region, and per 1000 athlete-hours of exposures. Analysis was performed based on age (7-8, 9-10, and 11-12 years).
RESULTS: In total, 1044 pain and injuries were reported including 648 pain, 210 traumatic injuries and 186 overuse injuries. Of the 396 traumatic and overuse injuries, 19.4% were ankle, followed by knee (16.2%), foot (12.4%), and hamstring (6.6%). The overall injury rate per 1000 athlete-hours of exposure was 1.55. The 11- to 12-year-old group had the highest injury rate and significantly higher injury incidence compared with 7- to 8-year-old group and 9- to 10-year-old group. Injury incidence rate had an upward trend with increasing age. On the other hand, injury incidence rate had a downward trend with increasing duration of experience.
CONCLUSIONS: The findings showed that badminton pain and injuries mostly involved lower limbs in elementary school-aged players. These data might help target the most at-risk region for badminton injury prevention programs in elementary school-aged players.

KEY WORDS: Athletic injuries; Epidemiology; Racquet sports; Child