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. 2021 Oct 17;57(10):1118.
doi: 10.3390/medicina57101118.

Epidemiology of Musculoskeletal Injuries in Adult Athletes: A Scoping Review

Francesca Gimigliano  1 , Giuseppina Resmini  2 , Antimo Moretti  3 , Milena Aulicino  3 , Fiorinda Gargiulo  3 , Alessandra Gimigliano  4 , Sara Liguori  3 , Marco Paoletta  3 , Giovanni Iolascon  3
Affiliations

Epidemiology of Musculoskeletal Injuries in Adult Athletes: A Scoping Review

Francesca Gimigliano et al. Medicina (Kaunas). .

Abstract

Background and Objectives: Sport-related musculoskeletal injuries (MSK-Is) are a common health issue in athletes that can lead to reduced performance. The aim of this scoping review was to synthetize available evidence on injury incidence rates (IIRs), types, and sites that affect the musculoskeletal (MSK) system of adult athletes. Materials and Methods: We performed a scoping review on the Pubmed database limiting our search to 33 Olympic sports. Results: We identified a total of 1022 papers, and of these 162 were examined in full for the purpose of this review. Archery was the sport with the highest risk of injuries to the upper extremities, marathons for the lower extremities, and triathlon and weightlifting for the body bust. In the majority of the sports examined, muscle/tendon strain and ligament sprain were the most common MSK-Is diagnoses, while athletics, karate, and football were the sports with the highest IIRs, depending on the methods used for their calculations. Conclusions: Our scoping review highlighted the general lack and dishomogeneity in the collection of data on MSK-Is in athletes.

Keywords: Olympic Games; athletes; incidence; musculoskeletal injuries; sport; sprain; strain.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
PRISMA-ScR flow chart of the study selection process.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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