Background Taekwondo black belt population of Korea is among nation's best. However, there is no well-organized injury surveillance system (ISS) in Korea.

Objective To analyse epidemiological data of youth Taekwondo injury to compare and examine injury incidence of adult athletes.

Design Prospective epidemiological study.

Setting Taekwondo competition and practice of 2016 season in Korea.

Patients (or Participants) Eighty two middle, 76 high school, and 82 university Taekwondo athletes who registered officially for Korea Taekwondo Association participated in the study.

Interventions (or Assessment of Risk Factors) The athletes with injuries to examine potential risk factors.

Main Outcome Measurements Chi-square tests were used to compare rate of injury between gender and level. Injury rates per athletic exposure (A-E), odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidential intervals (CI) were conducted.

Results Among the 243 registered athletes (33.5% female), a total of 155 injuries, 117 injuries occurred during 476,983 A-E 0.24 injuries per 1,000 AEs during training and 38 injuries during 1,036 per 1,063 AEs; 38.6 per 1,000 A-E during competition were reported. The majority of injury location was ankle (23.4%). Contusion (22.7%) was the most common types of injury. Injury rate was not significantly different between male and female. Youth athletes demonstrated significantly higher injury incidence (OR 2.16; CI: 1.24 to 3.78) as compared to that of adult athletes. However, adult athletes are more likely to have more severe injuries (OR 3.57; CI: 1.46 to 8.70).

Conclusions This injury surveillance study provides an essential epidemiological information that will help clinicians to consider and develop prevention strategies to reduce injuries for both youth and adult athletes during training/competitions. Future research should evaluate injuries during match with same athletic population based on prospectively collecting ISS data.