Information about a piece of news titled High prevalence of overuse injury among iron-distance triathletes
High prevalence of overuse injury among iron-distance triathletes
Intoduction
This is the take-home message of a recently conducted study by the Oslo Sports Trauma Research Center and published in British Journal of Sports Medicine.
Triathlon is an increasingly popular sport at both the elite and the recreational level.
However, there have been few high-quality studies of injuries and illnesses among triathletes.
Medical student Christian Andersen (picture) and his team prospectively followed 174 participants of the 2011 Norseman Xtreme Triathlon over a 26-week period leading up to their major event.
This triathlon is the world´s toughest iron-distance triathlon with 3.8 km swimming, 180 km cycling and a final marathon up to the summit of Gaustatoppen (1870 m above sea level).
Information on overuse injuries located in the shoulder, lower back, thigh, knee and lower leg was collected every second week using the Oslo Sports Trauma Research Center Overuse Injury Questionnaire. Illnesses, acute injuries and overuse problems affecting other anatomical areas were also recorded.
Overuse problems common for more than half of all triathletes with 1 out of 5 triathletes having substantial overuse problems
Common sites of overuse problems were the knee and the lower back, with an average prevalence of 25% and 23%, respectively.
This is comparable to the rate of problems among elite Norwegian road cyclists in the same areas. Lower-leg problems were also very prevalent among the triathletes, with an average prevalence of 23%.
The risk of sustaining an acute traumatic injury was 1 injury per 1000 hours of training or competition. This is relatively low compared to other sports, such as football and handball where reports of up to 30 injuries/1000 match hours or 1-2 injuries per match are not uncommon.
A majority of the moderate and severe acute injuries were located at the knee, shoulder/clavicle/
sternum/ribs, and the predominant types were contusions, fractures and sprains.
The average prevalence of illness was 11%, slightly higher than the rate among Norwegian athletes preparing for the London Olympic Games.
Overuse problems far more common than acute injuries and illnesses
Overuse problems constitute the majority of injury cases among iron-distance triathletes, and are far more common than acute injuries and illnesses.
Future injury prevention studies in iron-distance triathletes should focus on the most prevalent sites of injury, which in the present study were the knee, lower leg, lower back and shoulder.
This study was conducted by medical student and Norseman-participant Christian Andersen and his co-authors Ben Clarsen, Tone Johansen and Lars Engebretsen.