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Risk factors for hand injury in hurling: a cross-sectional study
Eanna Falvey1, Paul McCrory, Brendan Crowley
1Department of Sport Medicine, Sports Surgery Clinic, Dublin, Ireland.
Insights
Hurling players frequently sustain hand injuries, often from direct blows. Despite helmet use, hand protection is rarely adopted, and hand injuries remain significantly associated with helmet and faceguard use.
Area of Science:
- Sports medicine
- Orthopedic surgery
- Trauma research
Background:
- Hurling, Ireland's national sport, commonly results in hand injuries.
- While head and face protection use has increased, hand injury rates have not decreased.
- Understanding factors contributing to hurling-related hand injuries is crucial for prevention.
Purpose of the Study:
- To quantify emergency department presentations for hurling-related injuries.
- To examine variables associated with hand injuries in hurling.
- To compare hand injury occurrence between players using and not using head and face protection.
Main Methods:
- Retrospective cross-sectional study design.
- Data collected from a university hospital emergency department over 3 months.
- Follow-up telephone interviews with 163 players aged 16 years and older.
Main Results:
- The hand was the most frequently injured body part (52.1%).
- Hand injuries commonly resulted from direct blows by the hurley stick (65%), with 62% being fractures.
- A significant association was found between wearing a helmet and faceguard and hand injury (OR 3.15, p=0.002), even after adjusting for other factors.
Conclusions:
- Hand injuries are a common occurrence in hurling.
- There is a low uptake of hand protection among players.
- Hand injury is significantly associated with the use of helmet and faceguard protection, indicating a need for further research into injury prevention strategies.
Objectives:
Hurling is Ireland's national sport, played with a stick and ball; injury to the hand is common. A decrease in the proportion of head injury among emergency department (ED) presentations for hurling-related injury has coincided with voluntary use of helmet and face protection since 2003. A similar decrease in proportions has not occurred in hand injury. We aim to quantify hurling-related ED presentations and examine variables associated with injury. In particular, we were interested in comparing the occurrence of hand injury in those using head and face protection versus those who did not.
Design:
This study utilised a retrospective cross-sectional study design.
Setting:
This study took place at a university hospital ED over a 3-month period.
Outcome Measures:
A follow-up telephone interview was performed with 163 players aged ≥16 years to reflect voluntary versus obligatory helmet use.
Results:
The hand was most often injured (n=85, 52.1%). Hand injury most commonly occurred from a blow of a hurley (n=104, 65%), and fracture was confirmed in 62% of cases. Two-thirds of players (66.3%) had multiple previous (1-5) hand injuries. Most patients 149 (91.4%) had tried commercially available hand protection, but only 4.9% used hand protection regularly. Univariate analysis showed a statistically significant association between wearing a helmet and faceguard and hand injury; OR 2.76 (95% CI 1.42 to 5.37) p=0.003. On further analysis adjusting simultaneously for age, prior injury, foul play and being struck by a hurley, this relationship remained significant (OR 3.15 95% CI 1.51 to 6.56, p=0.002).
Conclusions:
We report that hurling-related hand injury is common. We noted the low uptake of hand protection. We found that hand injury was significantly associated with the use of helmet and faceguard protection, independent of the other factors studied. Further studies are warranted to develop strategies to minimise the occurrence of this injury.
