Contact injuries of the female field hockey players

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Field hockey is classified as a non-contact sport, however it is clear from literature review that most injuries occur by contact. Despite the old history of the sport, field hockey has only recently started to develop in Turkey. This is the first research about the field hockey injuries which take place especially due to contact. METHODS: Ninety six Turkish female field hockey players took part in this study and they filled an anonymous questionnaire including field hockey information (position, and playing experience) and contact injury history of players in the 2011-2012 season (numbers of contact injuries, type of injuries, contact mechanism of injuries and detailed body parts injured with positions of players). RESULTS: The most common type of injury was contusion (50% of the total 382 contact injuries). Injuries caused by the contact of the ball are the main reasons of such injuries and they constitute 46% of the contact injuries. Besides, it was found out that the body part affected most commonly by contact injuries is the upper limb (48%). Defenders have the highest rate of contact injury as common as 41%. There were significant differences between types of injuries and mechanisms of the contact injuries (P=0.001). CONCLUSIONS: In sum, it was concluded that more protective clothes and equipment would make contact injuries less common and probably make field hockey more popular. The regular and systematic data collection about sport injuries will improve the prevention and control of these injuries.