Identifying Risk Factors of Upper Extremity Injuries in Collegiate Baseball Players: A Pilot Study.
Robert Slowik, Christopher Morris, Matthew Hoch and 1 others
PMID 34123531WHAT IT FOUND
Injured pitchers were stronger, not weaker, at baseline, contradicting the hypothesis.
However, weekly workload changes exceeding 33% in either direction preceded 10 of 12 injuries. This pilot suggests monitoring volume spikes and drops may matter more than pre-season strength deficits.
Key findings
01Injured pitchers had greater shoulder internal rotator strength and grip strength than non-injured pitchers, opposing the hypothesis that deficits predict injury.
02Acute-to-chronic workload ratio changes greater than 33% were associated with overuse injuries in the subsequent week, with 10 of 12 injury weeks preceded by such changes.
03The study was a small pilot with a truncated season, and the confidence intervals for the injury risk estimate were wide, indicating low certainty.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
The study included only 17 pitchers from a single team, making it a pilot with very low generalizability. The season was truncated by COVID-19, limiting exposure data to 9 weeks. Pitch counts were estimated by athletes rather than objectively recorded. The wide confidence interval for the relative risk (1.8-54.1) suggests the estimate may be by chance. Baseline measurements were taken only once, missing potential in-season changes. Only chronic overuse injuries were tracked, excluding acute traumatic injuries.
Declared interests
No conflicts of interest to report.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the 8.3-fold increased injury risk as a precise clinical threshold. The study was a small pilot with a wide confidence interval (1.8-54.1), and the pre-season strength findings contradicted the primary hypothesis, showing injured players were stronger. Use these findings to guide monitoring, not to definitively predict injury.