Descriptive epidemiology of injuries in Japanese male collegiate rugby union players

Abstract

To the best of our knowledge, most previous studies regarding the epidemiology of injuries in rugby union (rugby) players have focused on professional players. Therefore, data on injuries in collegiate rugby players in Japan is limited. The purpose of this study was to conduct a prospective injury survey of Japanese male collegiate rugby players over several years and to analyze the injuries that occurred during matches and training according to field position, type of injury, and mechanism of injury. This prospective study initially registered 128 rugby players from one university club. The occurrence of injuries was recorded by athletic trainers during the rugby seasons between 2017 and 2019. The total injury rate (IR) was 7.26 injuries/1000 player-hours (1000 PHs). The match IR (122.73 injuries/1000 PHs) was almost 31.9 times higher than the training IR (3.84 injuries/1000 PHs). Ankle sprains/ligament injuries (17.7%; 1.28 injuries/1000 PHs) were the most common injuries, in addition to acromioclavicular joint injuries in forwards and hamstring strain injuries in backs. The most common injury mechanism was tackling (16.4%). Injury characteristics differed according to field position; therefore, preventive measures according to field position are necessary. Moreover, the high number of tackle injuries suggests that improved tackle skills would help reduce injuries. The IR among Japanese collegiate rugby players was higher than that reported previously. Injury prevention training for collegiate players is necessary to reduce the number of injuries.

Sports Injury Surveillance Systems and Guidelines in Japan: A Systematic Review

“…Forty-four articles did not describe any sports ISSs or ISGs, one did not report sports injury data, three had retrospective study designs, 11 described surveillance systems that had ceased operation or were not ongoing, and seven presented duplicated information. The search process identified 28 studies, including six English articles 23 24 25 26 27 28 and 22 Japanese articles 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 , that met the inclusion criteria. A flow diagram of the screening and selection process of the studies is shown in Fig 1 .…”

“…Of the 28 selected studies, five included methodological details of ISSs or ISGs developed and currently used among sports in Japan (Aim 1) 29 30 41 44 45 , whereas 23 employed and described details of ongoing ISSs or ISGs developed overseas (Aim 2) 23 24 25 26 27 28 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 42 43 46 47 48 49 50 .…”

“…Consensus statement on injury definitions and data collection procedures in studies of football (soccer) injuries [35][36][37] ISG 3. Consensus statement on injury definitions and data collection procedures for studies of injuries in rugby union [38][39][40]42,43] Table 3 shows a summary of the articles that used the ISSs and ISGs developed overseas for surveillance among sports in Japan. The studies were published between 2009 and 2021.…”

“…Three of the 23 articles targeted study populations within multiple sports settings [28,31,50], five within the rugby union [38][39][40]42,43], four within football [25,[35][36][37], three within…”

“…National Collegiate Athletic Association Injury Surveillance System [23][24][25][46][47][48][49] International Ski Federation Injury Surveillance System [50] International Olympic Committee injury surveillance system for multisports events [31][32][33] Union of European Football Associations Champions League Injury Study [26] Oslo Sports Trauma Research Center overuse and health problem questionnaires [27,28,34] Consensus statement on injury definitions and data collection procedures in studies of football (soccer) injuries [35][36][37] Consensus statement on injury definitions and data collection procedures for studies of injuries in rugby union [38][39][40]42-43] ▶ table 3 shows a summary of the articles that used the ISSs and ISGs developed overseas for surveillance among sports in Japan. The studies were published between 2009 and 2021.…”