- Title
- An analysis of injury databases of amateur netball players
- Creator
- Downs, Chris
- Relation
- University of Newcastle Research Higher Degree Thesis
- Resource Type
- thesis
- Date
- 2020
- Description
- Masters Research - Masters of Philosophy (MPhil)
- Description
- A preliminary review of the literature on injuries in netball suggested some evidence of a high incidence of injury. Surprisingly, there was no review identified that consolidated the literature on injuries in netball players. Therefore, the aims of this thesis were to: 1) conduct a systematic review of the available literature on injuries in netball players, and 2) to add to this literature by analysing a database of injuries from female amateur netball players of all ages retrospectively over a ten-year period. A systematic review (Chapter 2) of netball injury studies meeting established eligibility criteria was conducted. From 713 initial records 35 survived scrutiny with an added four texts identified from reference lists, and these were all exposed to a quality assessment analysis. Results: Most studies were conducted in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa or other British Commonwealth countries. Injury rates were higher in elite players (19.35/1000PH) compared to recreational players (11.3-14/1000PH) over a netball season with injuries being predominantly to the lower limb, most commonly ligament sprains to the ankle. Severe injuries in children were mostly fractures and in adults ACL and Achilles ruptures, and factors related to players possibly influence the injury rates. Further, large prospective studies are needed to explore and clarify the findings of this review, particularly for young recreational netballers. The study described in Chapter 3 was driven by 10 years of providing the Newcastle Netball Association (NNA) with first aid and sports medicine services. The primary purpose of this study was to analyse the recorded injury data, relate the findings to those of previous studies (Chapter 2) and present them in a manner which would inform the sports medicine community, with the hope that the final analysis would provide information to improve the quality of medical services to members of similar associations both in Australia and overseas. During the 10-year period, 32,281 registered players participated in 428,042 hours of netball games as part of a recreational netball competition during the winter months of each year, mostly females and with an age range of 5-57 years. The variables recorded included age, area of injury (AOI), the quarter in which the injury occurred, and the position played at the time of injury. Details of injuries were collected and recorded by registered physiotherapists, at the venue and at the time of play. Two thousand two hundred and eleven injuries were analysed, and age data were divided into four groups (5-10y, 11-15y, 16-17y and 18+y) for the purpose of comparisons among groups and with previous study cohorts. The injury numbers and percentage of total injuries by age group were: 5-10y: n=304 (16.9%), 11-15y: n=918 (51.1%), 16-17y: n=140 (7.8%), 18+: n=435 (24.2%). Mean injury rate for all ages was 4.2 injuries/1000PH with highest injury rate in the 11-15y age group (5.54 injuries/ 1000PH). The injury rates calculated were relatively low compared to the same rates reported in previous studies. The greatest proportions of injuries were to the ankle (33.1%), knee (16.2%), hand (14.6%) and wrist (8.0%). There were statistically significant differences in injury percentage by player position, AOI by age group, AOI by position, and quarter of injury by age group. There were no statistically significant differences in injury percentage with AOI by quarter, quarter by position, or position with age. In Chapter 4, recommendations for future studies are outlined with the aim of research leading to a better platform to provide injury treatment and prevention strategies over all formats and ages of participants in netball. Knowledge of participant factors associated with injury risk may have an impact on netball injury reduction through further research in preventative programs.
- Subject
- sports injuries; competition levels; player positions; player ages
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1419568
- Identifier
- uon:37470
- Rights
- Copyright 2020 Chris Downs
- Language
- eng
- Full Text
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| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT01 | Thesis | 1 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download | ||
| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT02 | Abstract | 376 KB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |