Relevance and Incidence of Musculoskeletal Injuries in Indian Tennis Players; an Epidemiological Study

Shaji John Kachanathu^1, , Parveen Kumar² and Mimansa Malhotra²

¹College of Applied Medical Sciences, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

²Institute of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, Indian Spinal Injury Center, New Delhi, India

Cite this paper

Shaji John Kachanathu, Parveen Kumar and Mimansa Malhotra. Relevance and Incidence of Musculoskeletal Injuries in Indian Tennis Players; an Epidemiological Study. American Journal of Sports Science and Medicine. 2014; 2(5A):1-5. doi: 10.12691/AJSSM-2-5A-1

Abstract

Professional tennis sports involve powerful movements repeatedly subjecting the musculoskeletal system to heavy mechanical load, thereby increasing risk for most acute and overuse injuries. Despite many researches in sports injuries, however, none of them has dealt with prevalence, incidence, and pattern of tennis injuries among Indian tennis players. The aim of this study was to prospectively make a survey of prevalence and incidence of musculoskeletal injuries in Indian tennis players. A convenience sample of 350 professional tennis players from various national tennis sports complexes participated in this study. A sample size of 256 with a mean age of 22.67±9.34 years was compiled as per inclusion criteria. These included 173 males (24.23±10.20 years) and 83 females (19.41±6.09 years). An Unpaired t-test and ANOVA test were used to compare between injury incidences in different epidemiological study groups. Overall Injury Incidence was 2.18 / 1000 playing hours and Prevalence was 15.62 / 100 tennis players. Elbow was the most commonly injured joint, followed wrist, ankle, shoulder, knee, calf, thigh and foot in decreasing order of their occurrence. The gender difference was insignificant. Tennis players sustain more overuse injuries in upper limbs and more acute injuries in lower limbs. The backhand was the most injury aggravating strokes for elbow injuries, for wrist it was forehand stroke. This study helps to understand the prevalence and incidence of musculoskeletal injuries among Indian tennis players. The findings also reinforce the need for continuing scientific professional training and preventive fitness measures of the weak areas to reduce musculoskeletal injuries.

Keywords

tennis injury, tennis survey, incidence, prevalence, tennis injury pattern

Copyright

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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