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Jingzhen Yang, MPH1, Stephen W. Marshall, PhD1, J. Michael Bowling, PhD2, and Frederick O. Mueller, PhD1. (1) Injury Prevention Research Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 137 E. Franklin Street, CB#7505, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7505, 919-966-2251, jzyang@email.unc.edu, (2) Health Behavior and Health Education, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, CB 7440, Chapel Hill, NC 27599
Objective: To investigate use of discretionary protective equipment and injury history on incident injury among North Carolina (NC) high school athletes.
Method: The study analyzed data collected over 3 years (1996-1999) on 12 organized sports in NC 100 high school athletes. Variables studied included previous injury experience, any usual use of discretionary protective equipment (protective equipment that is not mandated), incidence of in-season injuries, and game/practice participation during the season. Poisson regression models were used to estimate rate ratios and 95% confidence intervals. Interaction between use of equipment and injury history was assessed. The analysis was performed in SUDAAN and focused on lower extremity injuries (hip to toes).
Result: Unadjusted rate ratios indicated no protective effect of using discretionary protective equipment in reducing lower extremity injury risks (overall injury RR=0.99, 95%CI=0.79, 1.27, game RR=0.81, 95%CI=0.60, 1.10, practice RR=0.99, 95%CI=0.72, 1.35). However, when interaction terms were added to the models, using discretionary protective equipment was associated with an 0.11 reduction in overall injury rate ratio (RR=1.58(1,12, 2.23) vs. RR=1.69(1.28, 2.25)) and 0.27 reduction in game injury rate ratio (RR=1.40(0.91, 2.15) vs. RR=1.67(1.14, 2.44)) among athletes who had history of previous injury, and a reduction in the injury rate of 30% among athletes who had no history of previous injury (RR=0.71, 95%CI=0.50, 0.99).
Conclusion: The findings suggest that use of discretionary protective equipment can help reduce injury risk. Understanding how injury history may interact with use of discretionary protective equipment is important in designing and implementing sports injury prevention interventions.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Injury Prevention, Children and Adolescents
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.