Prevalence and Determinants of Sport Injuries among the Egyptian National Handball Players

Abstract

Background: Worldwide, handball is one of the most popular sports played by all ages. Handball injuries result from intrinsic risk factors (as age, gender and previous injuries) and extrinsic risk factors (as playing position, floor type and equipment). Objective: Study the distribution and determinants of sport injuries among the Egyptian National handball players. Patients and methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study with analytic component was carried out upon all the Egyptian National handball players during the period from October 2016 to November 2017. According to the Egyptian Handball Federation, the total number of these players was 234 players. All these players were included in the present study.Results: The present study revealed that 83.3% of the national handball players had one or more sport injury in the last season, 81% of them were injured once and 40.2% of total injuries were overuse injuries. The most frequent injured sites were knee (47.5 %) followed by ankle (18.9 %). Higher injury prevalence was reported by the first team players (93.1%) and players above 20 years (90.7%). Females reported a higher injury prevalence compared to males (90.5% and 78.4% respectively, OR= 2.6). In addition, the highest prevalence rates were reported among backcourt players (OR= 4.5) and wingmen (OR= 3.7), players on artificial floor (OR= 4.3) and those didn't use protective equipment (OR=2.3). Conclusion: Older age, females, backcourt position, artificial floor and lack of protective equipment were significant predictors of sport injuries among the national handball players.