Sport Sci Health (2009) 5:93–99 DOI 10.1007/s11332-009-0083-9
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Injury incidence rate, severity and diagnosis in male volleyball players Anastasia Beneka · Paraskevi Malliou · Asimenia Gioftsidou · George Tsigganos · Helen Zetou · George Godolias
Received: 20 July 2009 / Accepted: 2 September 2009 © Springer-Verlag 2009
Abstract The aim of this study was to record the injury incidence in all age categories in male volleyball players and clarify the role of age in injury occurrence. The injury incidence rate, severity, diagnosis and the anatomical location of the injuries that occurred during practice and competition in the whole championship period were recorded prospectively during the period 2005–2006. A total of 407 Greek male volleyball players participating in all Volleyball Championships in Greece according to the Greek Volleyball Federation have been observed on a weekly basis for the period 2005–2006. The injury incidence rate was recorded as the number of injured players and also the number of injuries per player per year (total exposure time). The results revealed that injury occurrence is age related and junior volleyball players have a lower injury rate than senior ones. There were significantly more acute injuries in comparison to overuse syn-
A. Beneka (쾷) · P. Malliou · A. Gioftsidou · G. Tsigganos · H. Zetou · G. Godolias Department of Physical Education and Sport Science Democritus University of Thrace, Campus 69100 Komotini, Greece e-mail:
[email protected]
drome and the ankle was the most common injured anatomical location. Finally, outside hitters, universals and setters presented different injury rates to other players and the “incorrect sprawls” and “stepping on others’ feet” were the most common injury factors. In conclusion, findings in the injury occurrence rate must be interpreted in relation to the total exposure time in order to have more realistic conclusions. Key words Injury occurrence · Severity · Diagnosis · Chronic · Acute
Introduction Volleyball is one of the most popular sports in the world, with more than 200 member countries in the Federation Internationale de Volley-Ball (FIVB) and about 150 million players [1]. However, injury is a potential outcome of participation and since volleyball is a non-contact game, where players from the opposing teams are separated by the net, it may be expected that the incidence of injuries is low. However, studies have indicated that injuries in volleyball are quite frequent [2–5]. The injury incidence is between 1.7 and 4.2 per 1000 h of play [1, 2, 6] and it is the fourth most common source of sports injuries [2]. Comparing volleyball with other team sports, studies have shown that the injury rate in volleyball is lower than in other team sports such as soccer and basketball. Presumably this difference can be attributed to the non-contact nature of the game, as players from opposing teams are separated by the net. Nevertheless, the most common mechanism of injury in volleyball is considered to be a forced supination that occurs when the blocking player’s foot lands on an opposing spiker’s foot that has come underneath the
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net and is in the “conflict zone”. When this happens, the result is an inversion injury to the lateral collateral ligament complex of the blocker’s ankle. This fact conflicts with the result of many studies that show the most frequent acute injury type in volleyball is ankle sprain [7–11]. Concerning the occurrence of age-related injury, it has been supported that in soccer the injury incidence in youth players (16–18 years of age) is similar to the incidence in senior players (more than 18 years) [12, 13], assuming that the contact nature of the sport causes many ankle sprains and knee injuries. The possibility that the injury occurrence in volleyball – as a non-contact sport – is age-related remains debatable. Still, there is a gap concerning injury occurrence in male athletes in relation to the injury type, severity, anatomical location of injuries, if they occurred during practice or competition and if they were recurrent or not. This study aims to record the injury rate in all age categories of Greek male volleyball players and clarify the role of age in injury occurrence. Moreover, information related to injuries such as occurrence during training or competition, time of season, severity, anatomical location and diagnosis, number of recurrent injuries, playing position and factors related to the injury occurrence was recorded.
Subjects, materials and methods Description of subjects A total of 407 Greek male volleyball players participating in all Volleyball Championships in Greece according to the Greek Volleyball Federation (Senior’s championship for athletes more than 18 years old, Junior’s championship for athletes from 15 to 18 years old and Youth’s championship for athletes from 12 to 14 years old) were observed on a weekly basis for the 2005–2006 period. This was almost 30% of the volleyball players participating in the National Championship in the A1 and A2 categories. Table 1 gives the age groups and anthropometric characteristics of the in-
Table 1 Age and anthropometric characteristics of the volleyball players Characteristic
Youth 12–14 years old (n=72)
Junior 15–18 years old (n=109)
Senior more than 18 years old (n=268)
Age (years)
13.3 (1.2)
16.1 (0.98)
26.7 (4.5)
Weight (kg)
60.1 (6.7)
75.2 (10.2)
86.4 (8.5)
Height (cm)
170.1 (5.6)
183.1 (6.4)
190.8 (7)
Values are means (SD)
volved participants and Table 2 the specialty of players in terms of age group.
Data collection and definition of the injury An orthopaedic surgeon, a physiotherapist and a trainer made up the questions that were included in the interview. The injury incidence rate, the characteristics of the injuries (severity, diagnosis) and the anatomical location of the muscle skeletal injuries that occurred during practice and competition in the whole championship period were recorded prospectively for the last year. Injury was defined as ‘any mishap occurring during scheduled games or practices that cause an athlete to miss a subsequent game or practice session’. Injuries were classified into three grades of severity: minor (absence from training or competition for less than one week), moderate (absence from training or competition for one week to one month) and major (absence from training or competition for more than one month). This classification has been used in many studies [13–16].
Statistical analysis Data were statistically analysed using χ2 analysis of the SPSS statistical package to determine whether any of the previously mentioned factors were related to the incidence of injury. In all cases, the null hypothesis was rejected when p18 years) reported 185 injuries during a total exposure time of 69,156 h per year, representing an overall incidence of 0.81 injuries per player per year. In terms of volleyball participation over 12 months the 226 players reported 2.8 injuries per 1000 h (training and games) per player.
Training or competition and time of season The injury rate during training sessions was statistically different in comparison to the game injury rate (χ2=331, p
