Time to level the playing field between men and women — Given similar injury incidence : A two-season analysis of match injuries in elite men and women's (Super League) rugby league

Journal article

Scantlebury, Sean, Jones, Ben, Owen, Cameron, Brown, James Craig, Collins, Neil, Fairbank, Laura, Till, Kevin, Phillips, Gemma, Stokes, Keith A. and Whitehead, Sarah. (2024). Time to level the playing field between men and women — Given similar injury incidence : A two-season analysis of match injuries in elite men and women's (Super League) rugby league. Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport. 27(11), pp. 765-771. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsams.2024.07.001
AuthorsScantlebury, Sean, Jones, Ben, Owen, Cameron, Brown, James Craig, Collins, Neil, Fairbank, Laura, Till, Kevin, Phillips, Gemma, Stokes, Keith A. and Whitehead, Sarah
Abstract

Objectives: To compare match injury incidence, severity and burden in men's and women's elite rugby league.
Design: A prospective cohort epidemiological study.
Methods: Time loss match injury data were collected from all men's (11,301 exposure hours) and women's (5,244 exposure hours) Super League clubs.
Results: Injury incidence and burden were not different between men and women (mean [95 % CI]; 54 [45 to 65] vs. 60 [49 to 74] per 1000 match-hours; p = 0.39, and 2332 [1844 to 2951] vs. 1951 [1560 to 2440] days lost per 1000 match-hours; p = 0.26). However, injury severity was greater for men than women (42 [35–50] vs. 35 [29 to 42]; p = 0.01). Lower limbs accounted for 54 % and 52 % of injuries for men and women, with the head/face the most frequently injured location due to concussion (12 [10 to 15] and 10 [8 to 14] per 1000 match-hours for men and women). Injuries to the knee had the greatest burden for men and women (708 [268–1868] and 863 [320–2328] days lost per 1000 match-hours). Being tackled was the most common injury mechanism for men and women (28 % and 38 %) with greater burden (p < 0.01) than other injury mechanisms.
Conclusions: Male and female rugby league players have similar injury incidence and burden; however, injury severity was higher in men. Head/face injuries have the highest injury incidence and knee injuries have the highest burden. These injuries should be the focus for prevention initiatives at a league (via laws), player, and coach level, with equal and specific focus for both men's and women's rugby league players.

KeywordsConcussion; ACL; Burden; Severity; Sport
Year01 Jan 2024
JournalJournal of Science and Medicine in Sport
Journal citation27 (11), pp. 765-771
PublisherElsevier Australia
ISSN1440-2440
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsams.2024.07.001
Web address (URL)https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1440244024002251
Open accessPublished as ‘gold’ (paid) open access
Research or scholarlyResearch
Page range765-771
Publisher's version
License
File Access Level
Open
Output statusPublished
Publication dates
Print28 Oct 2024
Publication process dates
Accepted01 Jul 2024
Deposited21 Jan 2025
Additional information

© 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of Sports Medicine Australia.

This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/4.0/).

Place of publicationUnited Kingdom
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