Injury Frequency in Handball Players: A Descriptive Study of Injury Pattern in São Paulo State Regional Teams

Abstract Aim: To assess the frequency of injuries among male and female handball athletes, identifying injured anatomic parts, injury diagnostics, their severity and type. Methods: The participants were composed of 122 handball players from São Paulo state teams, being 63 male (21.2±5.3 years) and 59 female (19.9±5.3 years) athletes who were interviewed using the “Champion Profile” questionnaire. The injuries were sorted by type: acute or overuse; and severity (major, moderate, slight, minor), given by the period of absence from team activities (training sessions and matches), and our results are presented as descriptive statistics. Results: The majority of injuries was found in the lower limbs, both in female (69.6%) and male (47.4%) players, as well as the knee was the most commonly injured anatomic part, representing 33.7% and 20.8% of the total number of injuries for the respective genders. We found a higher number of major injuries in female (35.8%) and male (20.8%) players when compared to the other severity categories. The acute injuries were more common among the total sample (48%) when compared to overuse injuries (22.7%), while a sprain was the most commonly diagnosed injury. Conclusion: It was observed that Brazilian handball players demonstrated an important number of major and acute injuries, forcing them to abstain from training sessions and matches, which can lead to both team and athlete performance losses. Furthermore, we suggest the inclusion of preventive training to reduce the frequency of injuries in handball athletes.