Sports injuries and health problems among wrestlers in Tehran.

OBJECTIVE: To describe the magnitude of selected sports medicine problems of wrestlers in Tehran. These data are essential in designing preventive measures. METHODS: The population-based cross-sectional survey involved 411 wrestlers who were randomly selected from wrestling clubs in Tehran employing cluster sample setting method. The subjects were interviewed using a specially designed and validated questionnaire. RESULTS: Wrestling injuries were the reason for 44% of all overnight hospitalisations and one-third of operations in the wrestling subjects studied. The injury rates sustained by the subjects were 5.7 injuries/1000 wrestling exposures, or 42.3 injuries/100 wrestlers/year, or 31.4 injured wrestlers/100 wrestlers/year. Description of these injuries, kind of treatment and some possible risk factors were studied. Skin infections and upper respiratory tract infections (URTI) were the most common diseases which led to missed training sessions. Two-thirds of the subjects had never had a pre-participation physical examination. About half (51%) of the injured wrestlers in the study received no immediate care for their injuries. The most common treatment received by the injured wrestlers was drug therapy and only 3% of the injured wrestlers received exercise therapy. Hand and wrist followed by knee were the most injured parts of the body. CONCLUSIONS: The study found that the rate of injury among Iranian wrestlers is more than the reported rates for US wrestlers. Also, our data showed a high rate of hospitalisation of the subjects due to wrestling injuries. Hence, it is suggested that more attention in terms of research and prevention should be paid to areas such as fracture, hand and wrist injuries and URTI as well as the immediate care of injuries, return to training after the injury and pre-participation physical examination in wrestlers in Tehran.