Abstract

In the autumn of 1985 an investigation by questionnaire is made in a group of about 300 male and female players of the national competition of the Dutch Badminton Association (response: 63). They were asked to study the risk of badminton injuries in relation to exposure, to study the circumstances at the moment of an injury and the concequences of the injuries. The number of injuries was 155, yielding an incidence of 52. The average number of badminton hours was about 242 hours yearly. This means a player-incidence of 2.14 injuries/1000 badminton hours. Sex and competition level did not influence the player-incidence. However, age does influence: the group of players of 30 jears and over were injured relatively more. The lower extremities were involved in 55 of the injuries, the upper extremities in 28. One in three injuries was recoded as a reinjury. Playabsence was less by reinjuries and they were less often treated as new injuries. In view of the high player-incidence of 3.4 and 3.1 injuries/1000 hours respectively, the start of the competition period (September) and the start of the tournament period (February) were important risk-moments for receiving an injury. Overuse injuries accounted for 42.5 of all injuries. The risk of traumatic injuries was much higher during matches than during practice. The presominant cause of badminton injuries was intrinsic in character (95). With female players, unco-ordinated movements, like stumbling, was more often the cause of the injury. Playabsence took place in 62 of the injuries. Half of the total number of injuries caused a play-absence of over 3 weeks. About 71.5 of the injuries received medical attention, 48 by the professional health-care (general practitioner, physical therapist etc.) and 24 by the non-professional health -care (sportmasseur, trainer etc.). In view of the results one can conclude that in determining injury-incidences, the over all playingtime (matches and practice) also has to be taken into account. Verf.-Referat