A Prospective Epidemiological Study of Injuries in Japanese National Tournament-Level Badminton Players From Junior High School to University

BACKGROUND: Injury prevention programs have recently been created for various sports. However, a longitudinal study on badminton injuries, as assessed by a team’s dedicated medical staff, at the gymnasium has not been performed. OBJECTIVES: We aimed to perform the first such study to measure the injury incidence, severity and type as the first step in creating a badminton injury prevention program. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A prospective, longitudinal survey was conducted between April 2012 and March 2013 with 133 national tournament-level badminton players from junior high school to university in Japan with the teams’ physical therapists at the gymnasium. Injury incidence was measured as the injury rate (IR) for every 1,000 hour (1000 hour) and IR for every 1,000 athlete exposures (1000 AE). Severity was classified in 5 levels by the number of days the athlete was absent from practice or matches. Injury types were categorized as trauma or overuse. RESULTS: Practice (IR) (1,000 hour) was significantly higher in female players than in male players; the rates increased with increasing age. IR (1,000 AE) was significantly higher in matches than in practice in both sexes of all ages, except for female junior high school students and injuries were most frequent for high school students in matches. The majority of the injuries were slight (83.8%); overuse injuries occurred approximately 3 times more than trauma. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first study in which medical staff assessed injuries in badminton, providing value through benchmark data. Injury prevention programs are particularly necessary for female university students in practice and high school students in matches.