Influence of Surveillance Methods in the Detection of Sports Injuries and Illnesses.
Sonoko Mashimo, Takaaki Hogan, Satoru Nishida and 4 others
PMID 36237647WHAT IT FOUND
A weekly questionnaire asking about any complaint found 3.1 times more health problems than traditional time-loss tracking in university athletes.
This gap was largest for overuse injuries, which often do not stop play but still cause symptoms.
Key findings
01The new surveillance method recorded 3.1 times more health problems than the traditional time-loss method.
02The difference between methods was much greater for overuse injuries (5.3 times) than for traumatic injuries (2.5 times).
0348 athletes reported health problems using the new method, compared to 31 athletes using the traditional method.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study included only three university teams, so the results may not apply to professional athletes or other sports. The sample size was too small to analyze differences in health problem locations in detail. Most participants played contact sports, which may affect how overuse injuries are reported compared to non-contact sports. The traditional method relied on athletic trainers' records, which may have missed issues that did not result in time loss but were noted in other ways.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the higher number of detected problems as an increase in actual injuries. The new method simply captured cases that were already present but went unrecorded because they did not cause missed time.