Article Text
Abstract
Objective: Establish injury profile of collegiate rugby union in the U.S.A.
Design/setting: 31 men¡¯s and 38 women¡¯s collegiate rugby union teams prospectively recorded injuries during games and practice during 2005-06. 3 teams withdrew prior to data collection. An injury was defined as; 1. Occurring in an organized intercollegiate game or practice; and 2. Requiring medical attention during or after the game or practice, or 3. Resulting in any restriction of the athletes¡¯ participation for ¡Ý1 day(s) beyond the day of injury, or in a dental injury. Main Outcome measurements: A total of 847 injuries (men:447; women:400) during 48,026 practice (men:24,280; women:23,746) and 25,808 game (men:13,943; women:11,865) exposures were recorded.
Results: During games, injury rates of 22.5(95 per cent confidence interval: 20.2-25.0) and 22.7(20.2-25.5)/1,000 game athletic exposures (GAE) or 16.9 (15.1-18.9) and 17.1(15.1-19.1)/1,000 player game-hours (PGH) were recorded (men; women). Over half of all match injuries were of major severity (> 7 days absence) (men: 56%; women: 51%) and the tackle was the game event most associated with injury (men: 48%; women: 53%).
Conclusions: Collegiate game injury rates for rugby were lower than rates recorded previously in men¡¯s professional club and international rugby and lower than reported by the National Collegiate Athletic Association Injury Surveillance System (N.C.A.A. I.S.S.) for American football but similar to rates reported for men¡¯s and women¡¯s soccer in 2005-06.
- injury surveillance
- intercollegiate
- rugby union