Epidemiology of basketball and netball injuries that resulted in hospital admission in Australia, 2000-2004

• Published in: Medical journal of Australia 2009-01, Vol.190 (2), p.87-90
• Main Authors: Flood, Louise, Harrison, James E
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Age Distribution; Age factors; Athletic Injuries - diagnosis; Athletic Injuries - epidemiology; Athletic Injuries - therapy; Australia - epidemiology; Basketball - injuries; Biological and medical sciences; Child; Children; Databases, Factual; Epidemiology; Female; General aspects; Hospitalization - statistics & numerical data; Hospitals; Humans; Injuries; Male; Medical sciences; Patients; Public health. Hygiene; Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine; Retrospective Studies; Sex Distribution; Sex factors; Sports; Sports medicine; Statistics; Statistics, epidemiology and research design; Young Adult; Youth
• ISSN: 0025-729X; 1326-5377
• DOI: 10.5694/j.1326-5377.2009.tb02285.x

Objective: To characterise injuries sustained in basketball and netball that result in hospital admission and to compare the profiles of injury between the two sports. Design and setting: Population‐based retrospective descriptive epidemiological study using data from the National Hospital Morbidity Database, July 2000 to June 2004. Participants: Patients discharged from a public or private hospital with basketball or netball codes as the “activity when injured”. Results: There were 5090 basketball‐related hospital admissions (mean patient age, 22.2 [SD, 10.7] years; 71.5% male) and 4596 netball‐related admissions (mean patient age, 26.3 [SD, 10.9] years; 88.9% female). Fractures were the most common injury (46.8% [2384] of basketball‐related and 29.5% [1358] of netball‐related admissions), with the forearm and hand or wrist the most common fracture sites. The participant‐based forearm fracture hospitalisation rate (5 + years age group) peaked in the 5–14‐years age group. Anterior cruciate ligament rupture was the most common diagnosis, accounting for 760 (16.5%) netball‐related admissions (mean [SD] age, 26.7 [8.4] years) and 354 (7.0%) basketball‐related admissions (mean age, 25.5 [7.9] years). Achilles tendon injury accounted for 732 (15.9%) netball‐related admissions (mean age, 35.2 [7.5] years) and 381 (7.5%) basketball‐related admissions (mean age, 35.8 [7.8] years). Conclusions: The high rates of anterior cruciate ligament rupture and Achilles tendon injury resulting in hospital admission and their long‐term consequences impact extensively on the individual and the community. The common injuries sustained in basketball and netball were strongly age‐related.