Cierna D, et al. – The intent of this study was to discern the injury incidence rate and injury pattern among youth Karate athletes competing in national tournaments in Slovakia. It also focused on identifying the risk factors for injury. It was deduced that youth Karate displayed a considerably large proportion of head injuries. Higher risk of injury was found in adolescent and female youth Karate athletes, compared with their child and male counterparts.

Methods

• Data were cumulated during nine national youth Karate tournaments in Slovakia in 2015 and 2016.
• Injury incidence rates were estimated per 1000 athlete-exposures (IIR_AE) and per 1000 min of exposure (IIR_ME) with 95% CIs.
• A comparison was conducted of the subgroups by measuring their rate ratios (RR) with 95% CIs.

Results

• The overall IIR_AE and IIR_ME were found to be 45.3 (95% CI 38.7 to 52.6) and 35.9 (95% CI 30.7 to 41.7), respectively.
• Head/neck (57%) was determined to be the most frequently injured anatomical region.
• On the other hand, the most common type of injury was contusion (85%).
• The risk of injury for the 12-17-year-old age group was almost twice that of the 6-12-year-old age group, after accounting for exposure time (RR_ME 1.92 (95% CI 1.39 to 2.65)).
• This variation appeared to be more pronounced for girls than boys (RR_ME 2.47 (95% CI 1.52 to 4.00) vs RR_ME 1.62 (95% CI 1.06 to 2.49), respectively).