You are here

Article Text

Article menu
Download PDFPDF
Original article
Epidemiology of National Collegiate Athletic Association men's and women's tennis injuries, 2009/2010–2014/2015
  1. Robert C Lynall1,2,
  2. Zachary Y Kerr3,
  3. Aristarque Djoko3,
  4. Babette M Pluim4,
  5. Brian Hainline5,
  6. Thomas P Dompier3
  1. 1Department of Exercise and Sport Science, Matthew Gfeller Sport-Related Traumatic Brain Injury Research Center, The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA
  2. 2Curriculum in Human Movement Science, Department of Allied Health Sciences, School of Medicine, The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA
  3. 3Datalys Center for Sports Injury Research and Prevention, Inc, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
  4. 4Royal Netherlands Lawn Tennis Association, Amersfoort, The Netherlands
  5. 5Sport Science Institute, National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
  1. Correspondence to Dr Zachary Y Kerr, NCAA Injury Surveillance Program, Datalys Center for Sports Injury Research and Prevention, Inc; 401 West Michigan Street, Suite 500, Indianapolis, IN 46202, USA; zkerr{at}datalyscenter.org

Abstract

Background This study describes the epidemiology of men's and women's tennis injuries reported by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Injury Surveillance Program (ISP) during the 2009/2010–2014/2015 academic years.

Methods Injuries and athlete-exposure (AE) data originated from 19 varsity men's programmes (38 team-seasons); women's tennis data originated from 25 varsity programmes (52 team-seasons). Injury rates, injury rate ratios (IRRs) and injury proportions ratios (IPRs) were reported with 95% CIs.

Results The ISP captured 181 and 227 injuries for men's and women's tennis, respectively, for injury rates of 4.89 and 4.88/1000 AE for men and women, respectively. There were 32.2% and 63.9% reductions in men's and women's tennis practice injury rates between 2009/2010–2011/2012 and 2012/2013–2014/2015, but no reductions in competition injury rates. Competition injury rates were higher than practice injury rates in men's (IRR=2.32; 95% CI 1.72 to 3.13) and women's tennis (IRR=1.77; 95% CI 1.35 to 2.33). Most injuries in men's and women's tennis occurred to the lower extremities (47.0% and 52.4%, respectively), compared with the trunk (16.6% and 17.6%, respectively) and upper extremities (23.8 and 23.8, respectively).

Conclusions Injury rates in NCAA men's and women's tennis were similar overall. Practice injury rates in men's and women's tennis have declined, although competition rates have not changed. These findings may help inform injury prevention programmes in the future.

  • Tennis

https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2015-095360

Statistics from Altmetric.com

    Request Permissions

    If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

    View Full Text