Speaker: Athletes competing after COVID-19 pandemic were at higher risk for injury
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
CHICAGO — According to a presenter at the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons Annual Meeting, athletes returning to competition in their first season after the COVID-19 pandemic were at higher risk for noncontact and overuse injury.
To compare sport-related injuries before and after the COVID-19 pandemic, Shannon Y. Wu, MD, and colleagues from the University of California, Los Angeles, analyzed 12,319 sport-related injuries across 23 Pac-12 collegiate sports from January 2019 to June 2021. The researchers analyzed timing of injury onset, severity of injury, rate of procedural intervention, injury mechanism and likelihood of injury during the final 25% of competition. According to the abstract, an injury was defined as overuse if the symptom onset occurred more than 24 hours after the incident.
Compared with the pre-pandemic season, the overall proportion of injuries sustained during the final 25% of competition (28.5% vs. 25.9%) and the overall proportion of non-contact injury (46.1% vs. 39.8%) was higher in the post-pandemic season. Multivariate analysis revealed higher overall rates of noncontact and overuse injuries during the post-pandemic season. These findings were replicated when stratifying for knee and shoulder injury. Wu also noted female gender was “significantly” associated with overuse injury, noncontact injury, season-ending injury and decreased likelihood of procedural intervention.
“Health professionals taking care of these athletes should be aware that there may not be a one-size-fits-all recommendation for ramping up to competition,” Wu said. “Rather, recommendations need to be made on a sport-specific, team-specific or athlete-specific basis.”
Collapse
Shi B, et al. Paper 299. Presented at: American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons Annual Meeting. March 22-26, 2022; Chicago.
Read more about
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts