The Causes and Prevalence of Players Injuries in Ethiopian Premier League Basketball Clubs

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate causes and prevalence of   injuries in males and females basketball players in Ethiopia. These players participated in a national championship in during the 2013-20014 basketball seasons. Ten male and five female basketball clubs were participated in national basketball championships  and six male teams and four females team with ten players ,two coaches and one physiotherapist  each were randomly selected(N=130).The coaches were provided with a standard questionnaire from modified Sports Medicine Lab manual, in which injuries would be recorded players medical documents of every week injuries data were collected. The data included in the sheet were: the anatomical region of injury, the period that the injury occurred (training or game), causes of injury, the diagnosis of the injury and the kind of the selected therapy. The collected data were from whole season, meaning from the8th of Sept 2013 until 20 June 2014.Every injury was recorded by the physiotherapist and coach of the teams. From the start of the period until the end of the year 50 injuries in males and 36 in females were recorded. The rate was 0.72 injuries per male athlete per year, while for females the corresponding rate was 0.56. Males had more overuse injuries than females (p 0.02), while females had more injuries in   the   lumbar spine (p 0.001). Males had more knee sprains in the medial collateral ligament of (p 0.05), while females had more sprains in the anterior cruciate ligament (p 0.005). Both sexes sustained injuries during the games and in the second part. The nature of game and playing ground main causes for injuries for both sex. It is concluded that injuries in Ethiopian national Premier League basketball clubs players did not differ considerably from published studies. Further studies are needed in order that such injuries should be prevented.

Keywords:  Players, Injuries Causes and Prevalence