FREQUENCIES OF SPORT-SPECIFIC INJURIES IN PESHAWAR'S SPORTS COMPLEX

Abstract

Introduction: Athletes are more vulnerable to sports injuries, that’s why International Sporting Agencies are very concerned about the health and injury prevention of athletes. The key to delivering crucial epidemiological data is a standardized estimation of sports injuries. It also includes the nature of the injury and its contributing factors. At the national team level, Asia has a greater injury rate than Europe. It is important to know the frequency of injuries in sports like football, hockey, karate, cricket, table tennis, badminton and volleyball as they are common sports within Pakistan.

Material & Methods: This was a cross-sectional study involving 313 athletes (aged 10 to 30) from the Peshawar Sports Complex. The convenience sampling strategy was used to collect data. A questionnaire that has been self-modified was used. SPSS version 20 was used to analyze the data.

Results: Overall, 65.2 percent of injuries were reported; football (20.1%) had the largest proportion of injuries, followed by hockey (17.2%) and cricket (14.2%). Lower limb injuries accounted for 36.1 percent of the total. A total of 22.7 percent of the upper limb injuries were recorded. Shoulder injuries were the most common among all players (12.8 percent), regardless of the game.

Conclusion: Football, followed by hockey and cricket, had the highest proportion of injuries. Lower limb injuries were more common than upper limb injuries combined, while the shoulder had the largest proportion of injuries overall.