Information about project titled 'Prevalence of low back pain among elite team handball players'
Prevalence of low back pain among elite team handball players
| Details about the project - category | Details about the project - value |
|---|---|
| Project status: | Published |
| Project manager: | Anne Christine Gundersen |
| Supervisor(s): | Grethe Myklebust |
Description
Team handball is a popular sport, both in Norway and internationally. There are 6000 teams registered in Norway, and internationally handball is played in 183 countries. Handball is a sport with many acute injuries, especially related to the knees and ankles.
However, there is a huge problem of underreported overuse injuries, as well, among players of all ages and playing levels. Health professionals working with elite handball players in Norway experience players with low back pain.
A high prevalence of low back pain has been linked to sports where the spine is exposed to high mechanical loading combined with flexion/extension, rotation and medium to high frequency of training/competition.
A registration of low back pain in Norwegian elite handball has so far not been done.
The purpose of this study was to investigate the prevalence of low back pain in male and female elite handball players in Norway.
Methods
The design was a retrospective cross-sectional study. A total of 70 female and 69 male elite handball players included in this study filled out a questionnaire where the first part was to be completed by all players, the second part only by those players who had experienced previous or present low back pain.
The results of this investigation will in detail describe how common low back problems are among male and female elite handball players in Norway. As this study only included a sample of the elite handball players in Norway, future studies should aim to include the whole population.