Basketball is one of the most popular sports worldwide, involving repetitive jumping, sprinting, cutting, and deceleration.
These movements make the game exciting but also increase injury risk.
Injuries not only sideline athletes but also raise medical costs and risk of reinjury.
This systematic review provides a global overview of basketball-related injuries across age groups, sexes, and levels of play, offering critical insights for injury prevention strategies.
What are the most common injuries in basketball, and how do patterns differ by age, gender, and playing level worldwide?
What Did the Researchers Do?
- Researchers conducted a systematic review following PRISMA guidelines.
- Included 31 studies with 1.86 million participants, ages 7–52, across 13+ countries.
- Covered amateur, collegiate, and professional basketball levels.
What Were the Results?
Prevalence
- Injuries ranged widely from 0.38% to 92.0% across studies.
Most Common Injuries
- Ankle injuries → reported in 42.9% of studies (ankle sprains were the single most frequent injury).
- Knee injuries → found in 25% of studies (including ACL tears, meniscus injuries, and knee sprains/contusions).
- Head and tooth injuries → 10.7%, including concussions and dental trauma.
- Shoulder and hand injuries → 10.7%, often sprains, fractures, and dislocations.
- Sprains, strains, and contusions were the dominant injury types across all regions.
Sex Differences
- 83% of studies found higher injury rates in males.
Level of Play
- Pros had more injuries than amateurs.
- Youth players (12–17) had a higher prevalence than younger kids (7–11).
What Does This Mean?
- Basketball players are especially vulnerable in the ankle and knee regions, making lower-body resilience and load management essential.
- Sprains, strains, and contusions dominate, but facial, dental, and head injuries remain a concern.
- Professional and older youth players face higher risks due to intensity and exposure.
From the authors, “These findings highlight the importance of implementing injury prevention and management strategies, particularly focusing on vulnerable areas like the ankle and knee, to reduce the occurrence and severity of injuries among basketball players.”
Limitations
- Most data originated from the USA, resulting in limited global representation.
- Few studies compared injury patterns across ages and genders in detail.
Many studies had weak methodology, lacking clear definitions of injury and control for confounders → this is common in injury research.
Coach's Takeaway
- Protect the Ankles → Emphasize proprioceptive training, ankle taping/bracing, and jump-landing mechanics (the effectiveness of these strategies is not strong but worth a shot).
- Strengthen Knees → Focus on eccentric strength, plyometrics, and movement quality to reduce ligament strain.
- Don’t Ignore Upper Body & Head → Use protective strategies for fingers, teeth, and concussions.
- Monitor Load → Higher-level and adolescent athletes need careful workload management to reduce risk.
I hope this helps,
Ramsey
Reference
Liu Y, Huang H, Yang Y, Huang Y. (2024). Global prevalence and pattern of injuries in basketball players: A systematic review. Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness
