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Study associates NFL players’ lower extremity injury rates with playing surface
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Per-team injury rates in the National Football League were 27% higher for games played on a specific artificial turf surface vs. games played on natural grass during the 2002 to 2008 seasons, according to a recent study, which also found 88% higher ACL injury rates and 32% higher ankle eversion sprain rates for games played on the artificial turf.
“We have to look at some epidemiological studies in other sports, ages and gender and we need to challenge the manufacturers to look at these data to improve the surfaces,” orthopedic surgeon Elliott B. Hershman, MD, who chairs the National Football League (NFL) Injury and Safety Panel, said at the 2010 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeon (AAOS). The surface evaluated in the study was from FieldTurf.
The causes of the injuries, which were not looked at in his study, also need to be explored further, including the role that shoe wear plays in lower extremity injuries, he noted.
Injury surveillance system
Hershman and colleagues analyzed data from the NFL Injury Surveillance System for 1,961 games played over seven seasons for a total exposure of 3,222 team games. During that time, there were 1,105 knee sprains and 1,115 ankle sprains.
Investigators then calculated the experimental injury rate for the artificial turf exposure and compared it to the control injury rate, those seen on natural grass, to determine the differences in injury rates by surface.
They then used various means to validate their statistical findings.
Surface differences
The differences in all injury rates that Hershman and colleagues identified in their study were statistically significantly different for the FieldTurf surface turf vs. grass.
Hershman stated in a AAOS press release that, “Many NFL players prefer FieldTurf because it is softer and more comfortable to land on than other playing surfaces such as natural grass, but the more that NFL players play on this surface, the more they are prone to injury.”
Players, coaches, trainers and others in the NFL should be aware of this issue, he noted in the release.
Hershman has no direct financial interest in any products or companies mentioned in this article.
Reference:
- Hershman EB, Powell J, Bergfeld JA, et al. American professional football games played on FieldTurf have higher lower extremity injury rates. Paper #692. Presented at the 2010 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. March 9-13, 2010. New Orleans.