The prevalence of injuries and its association with the characteristics of training in American football players in Brazil

Abstract

American football is a high-impact collision sport, which may lead to high injury rates in the players. thus, knowing the aetiology and incidence of injuries may be useful not only for the treatment, but especially to help sports professionals to develop strategies or mechanisms of prevention while aiming to maintain the physical integrity of the athletes. Purpose. the aim of the study was to verify the prevalence of injury among American football players from the Santa Catarina state of Brazil. Methods. the total of 140 athletes were evaluated in the study with the use of an online questionnaire. Descriptive logistic regression and t-test analysis were applied (p < 0.05). Results. A high injury prevalence (74%) in the evaluated athletes was observed. Most of these injuries occurred during training (56%) and by direct contact between players (64%). Shoulders, knees, and hand/fingers were the most commonly injured body parts (14%, 13%, 12%, respectively). the most frequent types of injuries were those related to joints (46%) and muscles (39%), and very few concussions were reported. We found a significant positive association showing that the athletes that performed a conditioning program presented higher injury prevalence (p = 0.01). Conclusions. American football players of the Santa Catarina state are affected by high injury prevalence. the training characteristics, in general, do not seem to be associated with injury prevalence. thus, aiming to reduce the exposure to injuries, we recommend for coaches and trainers to monitor the total volume of training and participation in matches.