Epidemiology Of Varsity Sports Essay Example For Students

Epidemiology Of Varsity Sports Essay Epidemiology Of Varsity Sports Essay Varsity sports is in many schools as important as academics, especially in the United States. These schools rely a great deal on the success of their teams for financial stability and enrollment interest. The athletes as well take their sport very seriously, if only for the sake of their pride. It therefore follows that each team strives to be the very best, and only 100% effort is enough. Unfortunately, when competition climaxes, more often than not injuries result. This study is a synopsis of the data collected in a number of past articles concerned with injuries incurred by collegiate athletes in many different varsity sports. For the purpose of this study, an injury has been defined as any abnormal condition that has caused an athlete to be removed from practice or competition for one or more days, because performance has been impaired (Hanes and Murray, 1982). The following statistics will deal with injuries of collegiate sports incurred by athletes involved in Mens and Womens Basketball, Baseball, Gymnastics and Track and Field, Mens Soccer, and Wrestling, and Womens Field Hockey. BASKETBALL The study of the nature and extent of athletic injuries Occuring in Womens Basketball by Hanes and Murray in 1982 found an injury rate of 41.7 per 100 players. Of these injuries 56. 9% were ankle sprains, 24.1% were muscle strains. 76.2% of the sprains and strains occurred to the lower extremities. Injured fingers ( which were the only upper extremity injuries) accounted for 14.3% of the injuries and 4. 8% of the injuries were reported as facial. All information for this study was collected through the use of injury forms completed by the coaches, and information forms by each player, injured or not. In a separate study for the American Journal of Sports Medicine by Clarke and Buckley in 1980 on injuries incurred in collegiate Womens Basketball, there was an injury rate of 20.3 per 100 players. There was a reported incidence of 53% sprains, and 4% strains. 40% of all injuries sustained were to the lower extremities. In the same study Clarke and Buckley found similar results in Mens Varsity Basketball to that of the Womens. The men reported 20.7 per 100 players suffering injuries, 54% of those being sprains, 6% being strains with 37% of the injuries Occuring to the lower extremity. All the data collected by Clarke and Buckley was received from the National Athletic Injury/ Illness Recording System (NAIRS). BASEBALL Clark and Buckley have also examined Mens and Womens Baseball in their study The reported injury rate for this particular sport was 9.2% (mens) and 8. 7% (womens). Sprains occurred 37% and 40% respectively, strains accounted for 28% and 12%. Mens baseball saw 69% of the injuries in the lower extremity, womens baseball reported 82% of the injuries in the lower extremities. FIELD HOCKEY Womens Field hockey had a similarly low injury rate according to Clarke and Buckley, at only 5.5%. Sprains once again were the most common injury, comprising 37% of the incidence rate, and strains made up 21%. As might be expected by the nature of the sport, the lower extremities received 72% of the injuries. TRACK AND FIELD The incidence rate of the Mens and Womens Track and Field teams were 10% and 12% respectively. Although as Clarke and Buckley found, this sport alone saw different injuries come to the forefront. It was muscle strains that seemed most prevalent, Occuring 48% (mens) and 26% (womens) of the time. Sprains accounted for only 18% and 16% of the injuries. But as would seem fitting the men were inflicted with 72% of the injuries to the lower extremities, and the women 92%. The Problem Of Gender Discrimination EssayWRESTLING After a five-year study of two University wrestling teams, Snook (1982) found wrestling to have the highest incidence of injury of all those examined in this article, with an injury rate of 35.7 per 100 participants. The type of injury was fairly evenly divided between sprains (31.03%) and strains (27.58%) as it was between injuries to the upper (43%) and lower extremities (55%). SOCCER As should be expected, Mens soccer saw a very high incidence of injury to the lower extremities. According to Davis (1977) 85.02% of all injuries occurred to the legs and ankles, with sprains comprising 31.03% and strains comprising 27.58%. There was an overall injury rate of 33.21 per 100 players for his study. Clarke and Buckley similarly found that 76% of the injuries (an overall rate of 13.2%) occurred to the lower limbs, with 49% of those being sprains, and 12% strains. GYMNASTICS According to Clarke and .