Epidemiology of basketball injuries among adults presenting to ambulatory care settings in the U.S

Background: Little information exists that examines the epidemiology of injuries among adults who engage in sports and recreational activities. Purpose: To examine basketball-related injuries among adults presenting to ambulatory settings in the U.S. Study Design: Descriptive epidemiologic study. Methods: Analysis of a nationally representative sample of adults presenting to ambulatory care settings in the U.S. for treatment of injuries incurred while playing basketball. Data were obtained from the 1997-2004 National Ambulatory Medical Care Surveys and National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Surveys. All analyses were conducted using SAS-Callable SUDAAN 9.0 to account for the multistage sampling design. Results: An annual average of 507,000 adults were treated in an ambulatory care setting for injuries related to playing basketball. The majority of these patients sought treatment in physician's offices. Females had a much lower rate of visits (0.8 /1,000) for basketball-related injuries than males (5.7/1,000); Black males had a rate 2.7 times higher than white males. The most common injuries were sprains and strains to the lower leg and /or ankle region and fractures of the hand, wrist, or fingers. Specific analyses of ED patients diagnosed with sprain/strain injuries to the lower leg/ankle region revealed that 93% of these patients received an x-ray procedure. Conclusions: Basketball injuries constitute a significant portion of ambulatory medical care use in the United States each year, particularly among young adult males and African American males. Better surveillance of adult participation in sports and recreational activities is needed to better identify risk and protective factors for injuries.