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Beach handball is safer than indoor team handball: injury rates during the 2017 European Beach Handball Championships

  • Sports Medicine
  • Published:
Knee Surgery, Sports Traumatology, Arthroscopy Aims and scope

Abstract

Purpose

Beach handball is a relatively new type of sports, which was derived from team handball. Medical issues such as frequency and severity of injury are yet unknown. The purpose of this study was to investigate the injury pattern and injury rates of this new type of sports.

Methods

This study investigated the injury incidence of 30 national teams (10 senior and 20 u-17 teams, 16 men’s and 14 women’s teams) participating in the 2017 European Beach Handball Championships. Reports on injuries sustained during the senior and u-17 youth tournaments were provided by the medical staff of each team. Injury incidence was differentiated between age and sex, and between the five field positions (goalkeeper, wing, central defender, pivot, and specialist).

Results

During the tournaments, 87 injuries were recorded yielding an overall injury incidence of 286.1 per 1000 match hours. Time-loss due to injury was 49.3 per 1000 match hours. Senior players had a higher overall injury incidence with 395.3 injuries than u-17 players with 205.7 injuries per 1000 h match hours (p < 0.01). Comparison of the injury incidence between the two sexes showed 330.23 injuries per 1000 h handball exposure for male players and 234.9 injuries for female players (n.s.). The most frequent injury type was sprains (21 injuries, 24.1%) followed by contusions (19 injuries, 21.8%) and skin abrasions with (15 injuries, 17.2%). Central defenders and specialists had the highest injury incidence. Thighs, ankles, as well as foot and toes (altogether 12 injuries, all 13.8%) were the three most frequently injured anatomic sites.

Conclusions

Beach handball seems to have a lower incidence of time-loss injuries than that reported for indoor team handball. This study is an important basis for developing injury prevention strategies in this sports that should focus on thighs, ankles, feet and toes. Further research into this new type of sports is essential to identify risk factors and to develop adequate injury prevention measures.

Level of evidence

II.

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Acknowledgements

No funding was received. All authors declare no conflict of interest for this study. We thank the European Handball Federation and the participating teams. We also thank the Centre of Clinical Studies of the University Medical Centre Regensburg.

Funding

There was no funding for this study.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Trauma Surgery, University Medical Centre Regensburg, Franz-Josef-Strauss Allee 11, 93053, Regensburg, Germany

    Leonard Achenbach, Michael Nerlich, Peter Angele & Werner Krutsch

  2. Clinic of Paediatric Surgery, Clinic St. Hedwig, Regensburg, Germany

    Oliver Loose

  3. Centre for Clinical Studies, University Medical Centre Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany

    Florian Zeman

  4. Department of Trauma and Orthopaedics, University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire, Coventry, UK

    Lior Laver

Authors
  1. Leonard Achenbach
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  2. Oliver Loose
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  3. Lior Laver
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  4. Florian Zeman
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  5. Michael Nerlich
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  6. Peter Angele
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  7. Werner Krutsch
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Leonard Achenbach.

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Conflict of interest

The authors have no conflicts of interest.

Ethical approval

Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval was obtained from the IRB (ID 17-750104-101) prior to initiation of this study.

Informed consent

Informed written consent was obtained from all study participants and from the parents of the u-17 players.

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Achenbach, L., Loose, O., Laver, L. et al. Beach handball is safer than indoor team handball: injury rates during the 2017 European Beach Handball Championships. Knee Surg Sports Traumatol Arthrosc 26, 1909–1915 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00167-018-4907-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00167-018-4907-5

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