Epidemiology of Injuries in Elite Badminton Players: A Prospective Study

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To determine the incidence and characteristics of injuries in elite badminton players over a competitive season. DESIGN: Prospective cohort study. SETTING: The French National Institute of Sport, Expertise, and Performance (INSEP). PARTICIPANTS: Twenty international elite badminton players. INDEPENDENT VARIABLES: The type, the location, the occurrence of the injury (match or training), the footwork type, the type of shot, and the perceived fatigue were collected. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Injury incidence rates were calculated per 1000 hours of play (Hop). RESULTS: Thirty-five injuries were collected over 10 210 hours of player exposure with an overall incidence rate of 3.4 injuries per 1000 Hop, with higher incidence during matches than training (11.6 vs 2.08; P < 0.05). Lower-limb injuries (LLI) were the most frequent (54.3%) especially on the foot (22.9%), and upper-limb injury rate (37.1%) was higher compared with previous studies. The most common type was musculotendinous injuries (51.4%). The smash and the lunge were the most frequent causes of upper-limb injury and LLI, respectively. Injuries occurred mostly during the first third of play (46.2%). CONCLUSIONS: This is the first prospective study to investigate badminton injuries among international badminton players. Further studies are needed to confirm our results on larger samples.