Injury Risk in New Zealand Rugby Union: A Nationwide Study of Injury Insurance Claims from 2005 to 2017

Abstract

Objectives The Accident Compensation Corporation is a compulsory, 24-h, no-fault personal injury insurance scheme in New Zealand. The purpose of this large-scale retrospective cohort study was to use Accident Compensation Corporation records to provide information about rugby injury epidemiology in New Zealand, with a focus on describing differences in risk by age and gender. Methods A total of 635,657 rugby injury claims were made to the Accident Compensation Corporation for players aged 5–40 years over the period 2005–2017. Information about player numbers and estimates of player exposure was obtained from New Zealand Rugby, the administrative organisation for rugby in New Zealand. Results Over three quarters of claims (76%) were for soft-tissue injuries, with 11% resulting from fractures or dislocations, 6.7% from lacerations, 3.1% from concussions and 2.0% from dental injuries. Body regions injured included shoulder (14%), knee (14%), wrist/hand (13%), neck/spine (13%), head/face (12%), leg (11%) and ankle (10%). The probability of a player making at least one injury claim in a season (expressed as a percentage) was calculated under the assumption that the incidence of claims follows a Poisson distribution. Players aged 5–6 years had a probability of making at least one claim per season of 1.0%, compared to 8.3% for players aged 7–12 years, 35% for age 13–17 years, 53% for age 18–20 years, 57% for age 21–30 years and 47% for age 31–40 years. The overall probability of making at least one claim per season across all age groups was 29%. The relative claim rate for adults (players aged 18 years and over) was 3.92 (90% confidence interval 3.90–3.94) times that of children. Ten percent of players were female, and they sustained 6% of the injuries. Overall, the relative claim rate for female players was 0.57 times that of male players (90% confidence interval 0.56–0.58). The relative claim rate of female to male players tended to increase with age. There were very few female players aged over 30 years; however, those who did play had higher claim rates than male players of the same age group (1.49; 90% confidence interval 1.45–1.53). Conclusions Injuries resulting from rugby are distributed across the body, and most of the claims are for soft-tissue injuries. Rates of injury increase rapidly through the teenage years until the early 20 s; for male players they then decrease until the mid-30 s. For female players, the injury rate does not decrease as players move into their 30 s. Combining Accident Compensation Corporation injury claim data with national player registration data provides useful information about the risks faced by New Zealand’s community rugby players, and the insights derived are used in the development of rugby injury prevention programme content.

Concussion knowledge, attitude and reporting intention in rugby coaches and high school rugby players

“…2 In New Zealand (NZ), concussions accounted for 3.1% of all injuries in community rugby across all age groups, as reported by the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) from 2005 to 2017. 3 From 2012–2016, an increase in moderate-to-severe concussions was observed, making it the third most common ACC injury entitlement claim in rugby. 4 Research in schoolboy rugby reports concussion rates of 6–8 concussions per 1000 player match hours.…”

NZ-RugbyHealth Study: Self-reported Injury Experience and Current Health of Former Rugby Union and Non-contact Sport Players

“…The elite rugby player group was at systematically higher risk of sustaining injuries during their playing careers than the non-contact sports player group; higher percentages of the elite rugby group were hospitalised because of a sporting injury and had a surgery related to an injury that occurred during participation in their sport than either the community rugby group or the non-contact sport player group. The proportions of the types of self-reported injuries were consistent with medically diagnosed injuries due to playing rugby from 2005 to 2017 recorded via the NZ national Accident Compensation Corporation claims [ 20 ].…”

Frequency and Characteristics of Injuries and Rehabilitation Procedures in Rugby Players in Poland and France

“…Analyzing the most common body region of injury, the statistically significant difference between Polish and French players was noticed in the frequency of the left shoulder injury which was more often for the formers. According to research on sports injuries in professional rugby [ 26 , 27 ], there has been an increase in the frequency and severity of shoulder injuries among rugby players in recent years and the reason is that the game has become more aggressive and intense [ 26 , 28 ]. A descriptive epidemiological study performed in all players licensed in the French Rugby Union showed that shoulder injury was significantly more frequent in senior and junior players, injuries mainly occurred during a match in the middle of the season and the main mechanism was tackling [ 29 ].…”