Women and Men National Collegiate Athletic Association Ice Hockey Players Were Similarly Likely to Suffer Lumbar Spine Injuries

Abstract

Purpose To describe and compare the epidemiology of lumbar spine injuries (LSIs) in women’s and men’s ice hockey during the 2009-2010 to 2013-2014 academic years and to investigate sex-specific differences, using data from the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Injury Surveillance Program (ISP) database. Methods The incidence and characteristics of LSIs were identified utilizing the NCAA ISP. Rates of injury were calculated as number of injuries divided by total number of athlete exposures (AEs). AEs were defined as any student participation in one NCAA-sanctioned practice or competition. Incidence rate ratios (IRRs) were calculated to compare rates of injury between season, event type, mechanism, injury recurrence, and time lost from sport, and injury proportion ratios (IPRs) were calculated to examine the differences in injury rates between men and women. Results There were a total of 165 LSIs from an average of 10 and 19 women’s and men’s teams, respectively, calculated to 1,254 LSIs nationally. Women were 2.48 times more likely to suffer a noncontact injury than men (95% CI: 1.33-4.61), whereas men were more likely than women to suffer contact LSIs (IPR: .51 [95% CI: .28-.92]). In Divisions II and III, women were 6.64 (95% CI: 4.14-10.64) and 1.28 (95% CI: 1.12-1.46) times more likely to suffer LSIs than men, respectively. Conclusions Women and men were similarly likely to suffer an LSI, but sex-specific differences existed in a mechanism of injury and likelihood of injury within NCAA Divisions.

Two Minutes for Roughing: A National Analysis of Ice Hockey Injuries from American Trauma Centers

“…There are a small number of existing studies that contrast injuries sustained during ice hockey by the sex of the player. Studies based on National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) ice hockey data demonstrated that rates of lumbar spine fractures 19 and back/neck/spine injuries in general 20 were comparable between the sexes. Interestingly, one recent study on the incidence of upper extremity injuries sustained during hockey demonstrated that men sustained a higher rate of injury than did women, 21 a finding which conflicts with the current study.…”

“…Over the study period, there were 306 patients with hockey-related injuries (<1% of all patients in the NTDB). The median age was 15 [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25] years and ranged from 5 to 71 years (Table 1). The majority of patients were male (n = 279, 91%).…”