Prevalence of basketball-related musculoskeletal injuries among university players

Abstract

Basketball is one of top 10 most popular sports frequently contested at University Sports of South Africa (USSA) tournaments. Basketball played at university level is an aggressive contact sport which lends itself to a high prevalence of musculoskeletal pain and injuries. This study documented the prevalence and causes of musculoskeletal injury sustained by the USSA basketball players. A descriptive survey was conducted on 51 male and female USSA basketball players aged 18-32 years who participated in the study by voluntary informed consent. Data were collected using a validated musculoskeletal pain questionnaire. Data were descriptively and statistically analyzed using Chi-square tests (p< 0.05). The results indicated 78.43% prevalence of basketball-related musculoskeletal injury among the USSA players (p<0.01). The ankle (27.92%) and knee (18.91%) were the most prevalent anatomical sites susceptible to basketball-related musculoskeletal injury (p< 0.01). Female basketball players (59.45%) sustained a higher percentage of the basketball-related musculoskeletal injury than their male counterparts (40.55%). The mechanisms producing basketball-related musculoskeletal injury reported by the players were rapid, rotational changing of direction when playing (48.57%), collision with players (37.14%) and being struck with a basketball (14.28%) (p<0.05). Overall, the findings indicated a high prevalence of musculoskeletal injury among the USSA basketball players.

Keywords: Basketball, musculoskeletal injury

African Journal for Physical, Health Education, Recreation and Dance(AJPHERD) Vol. 18, No. 2 (June) 2012, pp. 308-316