A 6-year surveillance study of "Stingers" in NCAA American Football.

This study describes the epidemiology of "stinger" injuries in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Men's Football. About 57 NCAA Men's Football programmes provided 153 team-seasons of injury data to the NCAA Injury Surveillance Programme (NCAA-ISP) during the 2009/2010-2014/2015 academic years. In the study period, 229 "stingers" were reported for an injury rate of 2.04/10,000 athlete-exposures (AE). Most "stingers" were reported during competitions (55.5%) and the preseason (80.3%) and resulted in time loss less than 24 hours (63.8%). One in five (18.8%) were recurrent. Most "stingers" were due to player contact (93.0%), particularly while tackling (36.7%) and blocking (25.8%) and occurred to defensive ends/linebackers (25.8%) and offensive linemen (23.6%). Although previous research reports a large prevalence of "stingers" among football players, the NCAA-ISP reported a relatively low injury rate. The transient nature of pain associated with "stingers" may have contributed to under-reporting, highlighting the need to deduce manners to increase reporting.

Epidemiology of National Collegiate Athletic Association Men's and Women's Cross-Country Injuries, 2009-2010 Through 2013-2014.

CONTEXT: Recent injury-surveillance data for collegiate-level cross-country athletes are limited. OBJECTIVE: To describe the epidemiology of National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) men's and women's cross-country injuries during the 2009-2010 through 2013-2014 academic years. DESIGN: Descriptive epidemiology study. SETTING: Aggregate injury and exposure data collected from 25 men's and 22 women's cross-country programs, providing 47 and 43 seasons of data, respectively. PATIENTS OR OTHER PARTICIPANTS: Collegiate student-athletes participating in men's and women's cross-country during the 2009-2010 through 2013-2014 academic years. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): Injury rates; injury rate ratios (RRs); injury proportions by body site, diagnosis, and apparatus; and injury proportion ratios were reported with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). RESULTS: The Injury Surveillance Program captured 216 injuries from men's cross-country and 260 injuries from women's cross-country, leading to injury rates of 4.66/1000 athlete-exposures (AEs) for men (95% CI = 4.04, 5.28) and 5.85/1000 AEs for women (95% CI = 5.14, 6.56). The injury rate in women's cross-country was 1.25 times that of men's cross-country (95% CI = 1.05, 1.50). Most injuries affected the lower extremity (men = 90.3%, women = 81.9%). The hip/groin-injury rate in women (0.65/1000 AEs) was higher than that in men (0.15/1000 AEs; RR = 4.32; 95% CI = 1.89, 9.85). The ankle-injury rate in men (0.60/1000 AEs) was higher than that in women (0.29/1000 AEs; RR = 2.07; 95% CI = 1.07, 3.99). Common diagnoses were strains (men = 19.9%, women = 20.4%) and inflammation (men = 18.1%, women = 23.8%). The majority of injuries were classified as overuse (men = 57.6%, women = 53.3%). CONCLUSIONS: Consistent with prior research, injury distributions varied between male and female athletes, and the injury rate among females was higher. Understanding the epidemiology of these cross-country injuries may be important for developing appropriate preventive interventions.