TENNIS EPIDEMIOLOGY

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Some epidemiological studies (Brizuela, 1996; Ferrandis, 1997; Caine et al., 1996) show that the location, frequency and type of injuries depends on the type of practice. This study was aimed at analyzing the distribution of injuries in body areas, and the dependence of these injuries on the characteristics of the players, footwear and sports surface in tennis. METHODS: A review study was made by means of personal interviews in the courts of 5 tennis clubs in the area of Valencia. A total of 205 questionnaires were compiled, so the maximum sampling error is about 6.9% for a sample size of 4,000 players. In these questionnaires there were personal, technical and epidemiological data, as well as descriptive characteristics of the footwear and surface. It was found that 60% of the injuries were located in the lower limbs, 30% in upper limbs and 10% in the spine. The most often injured anatomical area was the ankle, followed by the wrist, elbow and knee. The extrinsic risk factors detected were the number of weekly hours of practice and the type of surface, while the intrinsic risk factors determined were the type of foot, and in the case of ankle injuries, gender. RESULTS: The greatest number of injuries were located in the lower limbs, ankle injuries being the most frequent. Such injuries depend on the characteristics of the court surface; however, no dependence on footwear characteristics was found, possibly due to the exclusively descriptive data collected. REFERENCES: Brizuela, G. (1996). Aportaciones al diseño de calzado para la práctica del baloncesto: Análisis biomecánico de la influencia del calzado sobre el salto vertical y sobre el rendimiento. Aspectos epidemiológicos. PhD thesis, Valencia. Caine, C.G.; Caine, D.J.; Lindner, K.J. (1996). The epidemiologic approach to sports injuries. Epidemiology of sports injuries. Human Kinetics. Ferrandis, R. (1997). Criterios biomecánicos de diseño del calzado deportivo. Aportaciones al estudio cinético y cinemático del calzado para carrera urbana. PhD thesis, Valencia.