ORTOPEDICAL AREA   

Medicina dello Sport 2015 September;68(3):487-95

Copyright © 2015 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English, Italian

Epidemiological study on artistic gymnastics injuries

De Vita M. ¹, Panetta V. ², Prattico F. ¹, Foti C. ¹

¹ Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine, Tor Vergata University, Rome, Italy; ² L’altrastatistica srl - Consultancy & Training- Biostatistics office, Rome, Italy

AIM: The aim of this present study was to investigate the prevalence of gymnastics’ injuries related with gear training and level of Artistic Gymnastic athletes (AGA).
METHODS: The sample included 81 Artistic Gymnastic Athletes (AGA) of which 26 high performance athletes (HPA) and 55 amateurs athletes (AA). Data were obtained by questionnaire designed by authors themselves
RESULTS: The 46% of AGA got injuries, 24 HPAGA and 13 AAGA (P<0.001). The median age of athletes who had injuries is highest than athletes who didn’t have injuries (P=0.001). HPAGA are aged significantly greater than amateur ones (P<0.001). Joint apparatus is the most injured with 65% of sample, and the injury is mainly distributed in lower limbs (68%). The knees are most commonly trauma affected with 24%, while the most repeated injuries are sprains with 38%. Acute injuries are the most common. The biggest percentage of injury in relation with gear training is floor gymnastics (44%) and vault (26%).
CONCLUSION: This study confirms data in literature, important for improvement and development of new strategies in athlete prevention. It could be considered instrumental evaluation to test monthly athletes’ skill in order to investigate the cause of performance decline.