Citation

Pasanen K, Parkkari J, Rossi L, Kannus P. Br. J. Sports Med. 2008; 42(3): 194-197.

Affiliation

Tampere Research Center of Sports Medicine, UKK Institute, Finland.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2008, BMJ Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1136/bjsm.2007.038596

PMID

17932097

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: To compare the injury risk in pivoting indoor sports between two different surfaces: artificial floors and wooden floors. METHODS: 331 female players from 26 top level Finnish floorball teams were followed for one competitive season (6 months). All traumatic game related time-loss injuries were recorded. Injury incidences were calculated as the number of injuries per 1000 game hours for both surfaces. Incidence rate ratios (IRR) were obtained from Poisson regression models. RESULTS: Over the competitive season, 62 traumatic injuries occurred during the games. The injury incidence per 1000 playing hours was 59.9 (95 % CI 43.2 to 83.0) on artificial floors and 26.8 (95 % CI 18.2 to 39.3) on wooden floors, the adjusted incidence rate ratio being twofold higher (IRR=2.1; 95 % CI 1.2 to 3.5, p=0.005) on artificial floors than wooden floors. The risk for noncontact injuries (adjusted IRR=12.5; 95 % CI 2.9 to 54.9, p=0.001) and severe injuries (adjusted IRR=3.3; 95 % CI 0.9 to 10.9, p=0.052) was especially high when playing on artificial floors. CONCLUSIONS: The study attested that the risk of traumatic injury in pivoting indoor sports is higher when playing on artificial floors rather than wooden floors. The higher shoe-surface friction on the former surface is likely to explain the risen injury risk.

Language: en