Prevalence of Hamstring Injuries in Collegiate Softball Players and Comparison to Collegiate Baseball Players.
Kelly McInnis, Laura Mattes, Mark Cote and 1 others
PMID 41488377WHAT IT FOUND
Collegiate softball players self-reported hamstring problems more often than baseball players, but the overall difference was not significant.
Injured softball players had worse hamstring symptom scores, and softball pitchers reported more hamstring injury than baseball pitchers.
Key findings
0147 of 156 collegiate softball athletes (30.1%) self-reported a history of hamstring injury or posterior thigh pain.
02The overall self-reported hamstring injury rate was 30.1% in softball and 22.4% in baseball, but the difference was not significant (p=0.097).
03Softball pitchers reported hamstring injury significantly more often than baseball pitchers (27% vs 12%, p=0.041).
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
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What it does not show
The study relied on athletes' recall of hamstring injury and symptoms, and no cuing was given while they completed the survey. It was a convenience sample from 12 of 16 approached teams, with a 59% completion rate, and no a priori sample size calculation. The baseball comparison came from earlier data collected by paper questionnaire in 2013 to 2015, while softball data were collected by phone in 2021 to 2024, so method and era differences may affect rates. The paper reports self-reported prevalence and associations, not whether any screening or prevention program changes hamstring injury or return-to-play outcomes.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that softball players have more hamstring injuries than baseball players. The overall difference was 30.1% versus 22.4% and was not significant (p=0.097), and the study used self-report compared with older baseball data collected differently.
Summarised by AI from the full paper, without a clinician reviewing it. Check it against the source before it changes what you do. Read it on PubMed →