Prevalence of overuse injuries in athletes from individual and team sports: A systematic review with meta-analysis and GRADE recommendations

Abstract

Background: Overuse injuries result from the cumulative process of repetitive microtrauma and overload on the musculoskeletal system, which causes tissue damage. Therefore, these injuries may have long-term negative consequences that decrease an athlete's performance.

Objective: To estimate the prevalence of overuse injuries in individual and team sports.

Methods: Searches on MEDLINE, EMBASE, SPORTDiscus, and CINAHL from the first registration to February 2021 and hand-searching identified studies investigating the prevalence of overuse injuries in athletes from individual and team sports. Meta-analysis was conducted and the GRADE system summarized the overall quality of evidence. This review was registered in PROSPERO (CRD42019135665).

Results: Seventeen studies were included and pooling of 24 704 participants (22 748 of individual sports and 1.956 of team sports). Data from point- and period-prevalence of overuse injuries in individual and team sports were obtained. Pooled period-prevalence of overuse injuries in individual and team sports was 42.0% (95% CI: 30.0, 55.0) and 33.0% (95% CI: 21.0, 49.0), respectively. Another four studies investigated point-prevalence. The overall quality of evidence for the period-prevalence was of moderate quality. Sensitivity analyses suggested that different joints based in individual and team sports tended to increase the estimated prevalence of overuse injuries.

Conclusion: Athletes, clinicians, sport teams, and policymakers should be aware of the high prevalence of overuse injuries in athletes, especially, in athletes from individual sports. Current moderate-quality evidence shows that future high-quality studies are likely to impact on the estimated prevalence.

Keywords: Athletic injuries; Cumulative trauma disorder; Data pooling; Epidemiology.