579 MEP061 – Injury complaints during their lifetime athletics practice in high-level athletes in track and field disciplines with sprints

AbstractBackground Epidemiology of injuries is fundamental to develop appropriate injury prevention measures. Among the athletics athletes, the population of elite athletes, competing at or with the goal of competing at an international level, and especially those participating in explosive disciplines requiring sprints (i.e., sprints, hurdles, combined events and jumps), named after "sprinting athletes", represents a population of interest when dealing about injury risk.Objective To describe the epidemiology of injury complaints in sprinting athletes.Design Cross-sectional study.Setting One-time online survey.Participants 68 elite sprinting athletics athletes.Main Outcomes Measures Injury complaints occurring during athletics from the start of their sports practice using a self-reported online survey system (LimeSurvey). Lifetime athletics-related injury complaint prevalence proportion, 1-year athletics-related injury complaint prevalence proportion, and point athletics-related injury complaint prevalence proportion, and injury complaint characteristics.Results A total of 302 athletics-related injuries were reported by 64 athletes. The career athletics-related injury prevalence proportion was 95.6% (95% CI: 90.7 to 100.5%). The 1-year athletics-related injury prevalence proportion was 61.8% (95% CI: 50.2 to 73.3%). The point athletics-related injury prevalence was 16.2% (95% CI: 7.4 to 24.9%). Most of the injury complaints were located at the lower limb (93%),hamstrings were the main location (33%) and the main type involved was the muscle (49%). The most frequent diagnosis was hamstring muscle injury (31%). Conclusions This epidemiological study provides additional information to help and orient the development of injury prevention programmes and strategies in sprinting athletes. It confirms the need to focus attention on hamstring muscle injury. Efforts should thus continue to monitor injuries in this population and to develop athletics- and sprinting-specific injury risk reduction strategies.