Frequency of Sports Injuries and Related Factors in Male Students Participating in the Athletic Sports Olympiad 2010 of Khorasan Razavi Province, Iran

Background and Causes and mechanisms of injury in athletes are an important consideration in sports medicine. This study reviews the frequency of sports injuries in male students participating in the Sports Olympiad 1020 of Khorasan Razavi Province. The population for this descriptive, cross-sectional study consisted of 1156 male student athletes in two educational levels, including middle school and high school. Data was collected using the Fuller’s damage report form (Fuller et al., BJSM 2006), which includes injured body parts, injury type, cause, and severity. In total, 122 injuries were recorded, including futsal 53 persons (44%), handball 44 persons (36%), basketball 18 persons (14%), and volleyball 7 persons (6%). The most frequent injuries were lower extremities (51%), upper extremities (22%), trunk and spine (16%), and head and face (11%). Most injuries involved muscle-tendinous damage (81%), while the least frequent types were skin (13%) and joint-ligamentous damage (6%). Highest causes of injury were collision between two players (59.86%) and lack of proper warm-up before the match (16.42%). Damage intensity was low in 67%, moderate in 23%, and severe in 10% of cases. The results showed that injuries occurred most frequently in handball and indoor soccer fields, while basketball and volleyball had the lowest number of injuries. Lower limb injury was the most prevalent, while the head and face were the least frequent injured parts. The most common type of injury was muscle-tendon injury. Collision between players and non-warmed up limbs were the greatest cause of injuries. (Quarterly Journal of Sabzevar University of Medical Sciences, Volume 19, Number 2, pp.198-205).