Identifying the most common injuries sustained by adult judokas and karatekas in Malta whilst practising their respective discipline

Abstract

Introduction and aim: Judo and karate have numerous health benefits. However, there is an injury risk when participating in these sports. Injury surveillance and injury causes identification aid the development of the management of combat sport physiotherapy. The aim of this study was to identify the most common injuries sustained by adult judokas and karatekas in Malta whilst practising their respective discipline and how those injuries were incurred. Method: A self-designed online quantitative questionnaire was piloted and used to gather data. The collected data included the sport practised (judo or karate), sex, age, whether an injury was sustained while practising the sport or not, the type and location of the injury and means of sustaining the injury. Data analysis was carried out using the software IBM SPSS. Results and Conclusion: The most common injury locations in judo were the shoulder (10.1%), knee (8.2%), ankle (7.5%) and finger (6.3%) whilst in karate were the ankle (8.3%), knee (7.6%) and the head (6.4%), neck (6.4%) and foot (6.4%). The most prevalent injury types in judo were muscle strains (14.8%), sprains (13.3%) and abrasions (12.6%) whilst in karate were muscle strains (22.2%), sprains (16.7%) and contusions (13.5%). The most common injury causes in judo were falling (32.5%), performing a throw (18.8%) and friction (15.0%) whilst in karate were during punches (24.1%), during kicks (21.2%) and overtraining (15.3%). No age-related or sex-related significant differences in judo and karate injury locations, types and causes were identified.