Discrepancies in combat sports injury reporting: A comparison of athlete self-reports and ringside physician data

The objective of this study is to describe and compare competition injuries in combat sports using two sources: (1) athletes' self-reported injury-related health problems (HPs) seven days after the competition, and (2) injury reports completed by ringside physicians immediately after each contest.

Cross-sectional study of 29 combat sport events in Western Australia between August 2022 and November 2023.

Athletes reported injury-related HPs through an online questionnaire that included the Oslo Sports Trauma Research Centre Questionnaire on Health Problems 2 (OSTRC-H2). Ringside physicians-documented injuries/medical notes were provided by the Western Australia Combat Sports Commission.

Out of 250 questionnaire responses, 97 (39 %) reported 321 injury-related HPs, predominantly affecting the lower limbs (63 %). Physicians recorded injuries/medical notes for 25 (10 %, 9 records were partially illegible) of the questionnaire responses, with 15 cases overlapping with the questionnaire data. Notably, 82 instances of injury-related HPs were not documented by physicians, whilst 10 physician reports contained injuries not reported by athletes. Agreement between physicians and athletes for reporting at least one injury was low (15 %, 15/97). Most concerning, physicians did not report 78 % (18/23) of time loss injury-related HPs that affected training participation.

Neither ringside medical reports nor athlete self-reports alone fully capture competition injuries, with only 15 % agreement between methods. Pairing physician assessments with post-competition athlete follow-ups could capture up to 4.6 times more time-loss injuries, providing a more complete understanding of competition injury and the consequences.