title: The incidence of head/neck/orofacial injuries in non-elite Australian football.
abstract: Injuries to the head/neck/orofacial region are common in contact and collision sports such as Australian Football. A total of 294 players who did not wear headgear from 23 teams from a large metropolitan community football league in Victoria, Australia, were monitored for head/neck/orofacial injuries over one playing season. This short report describes the incidence of head/neck/orofacial injuries in this cohort. Overall, there were 37 head/neck/orofacial injuries reported at a rate of 2.6 injuries/1000 participation hours. Over 70% of these were the result of being struck by another player through inadvertent contact during competitive play. Facial lacerations were most common (0.97/1000 player hours), followed by concussion (0.49/1000 player hours). Nine of the cases were referred to hospital for further treatment.
authors.affiliation: Sports Injury Prevention Research Unit, Monash University, Victoria, Australia.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Braham
authors.forename: C F
authors.initials: CF
authors.lastname: Finch
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: McCrory
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001265:Athletic Injuries / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015984:Causality; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005151:Facial Injuries / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005538:Football / Q000293:injuries*; D016489:Head Injuries, Closed / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006260:Head Protective Devices / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D022125:Lacerations / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D019838:Neck Injuries / Q000453:epidemiology*; D019876:Sports Equipment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014739:Victoria / Q000453:epidemiology