Director, Epidemiology IQVIA Edwards, United States
Background: Understanding the incidence and impact of injuries on athletes is important to inform injury prevention efforts. The National Basketball Association’s (NBA) centralized, audited Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system linked with by-minute player exposure data provides a rich, linked dataset for injury monitoring and reduction strategies.
Objectives: To describe incidence and impact of basketball-related injuries among NBA players from 2013-14 through 2018-19, utilizing rigorous data collection methods using a standardized EMR.
Methods: Descriptive epidemiology analysis of all injuries reported in the NBA from 2013-14 through 2018-19 using the NBA EMR-based Injury and Illness Database. EMR data were collected for occupational health and clinical purposes under uniform reporting guidelines across the full study period with rigorous data quality efforts and auditing against external sources to ensure completeness and accuracy of data reported. Time at risk was captured as player-minutes of game participation through linked NBA game data sources. Descriptive statistics were calculated for injuries by season, game-loss vs non-game loss, onset (acute vs, non-acute) and injury type, including injury incidence rates per 10,000 player-minutes of game participation.
Results: Between 552 and 606 players participated in at least one game per season across this 6-year study (average of 52 games per player per season). Yearly incidence ranged from 1,550-1,892 injuries, with 33.6-38.5% resulting in a missed NBA game. The 6-year game-loss injury rate in preseason and regular season was 6.9 (95% CI 6.0, 8.0) and 6.2 (95% CI 6.0, 6.5) injuries per 10,000 player-minutes, respectively. Game-loss injuries in playoffs had a lower rate of 2.8 injuries per 10,000 player-minutes (95% CI 2.2, 3.6; p< 0.01). Most game-loss injuries had acute onset (73%) compared to 27% of injuries with non-acute onset. Between 44.3-52.5% of acute, game-loss injuries sustained each year were reported as involving contact with another player. Of the 5,183 injuries, lower extremity injuries were the most common, accounting for 61.8% (n=3,201) of all injuries. The two most common specific injuries among NBA players were lateral ankle sprains (n=571, 11.0%) and hand/wrist soft tissue injuries (n=407, 7.9%).
Conclusions: Rigorous data collection using an EMR linked with player participation provides robust, real-world data to guide NBA player health priorities and inform evidence-based injury reduction strategies.
