COMPARISON OF INJURIES BETWEEN MALE ANS FEMALE HANDBALL PLAYERS IN JUNIOR AND SENIOR TEAMS

Abstract Physical activity is important in human life at any age, but unfortunately, many injuries happen during times of practicing sports. Sports injuries account for about 16% of all recorded injuries in emergency departments in Sweden. Injuries are a major issue in most team sports; therefore, all sport teams work on having prevention of injuries. Handball is a tough sport with a lot of clash among the players that causes several injuries. The purpose of this study is to compare injuries between male and female handball players in the senior and junior teams, to see how much age and gender may affect the injury incidence. This thesis has studied handball injuries by choosing and examining random patterns from Swedish handball teams in various levels of senior and junior teams of both sexes. The Survey has been done in spring 2012, and I have personally designed the questionnaire. The study comprised of 226 players, including 128 seniors (53 women and 75 men) and 98 juniors (47 women and 51 men). The total number of the injured players was (145), and according to their responses of the survey, the total number of injuries was (220), meaning that 64% of the players were injured at least once during the season 2011-2012. Handball injuries are divided into two types: acute injuries and overloading injuries, and they can fall during training and matches. Finally, I conclude that there are no significant differences detected between the different groups of age and gender concerning injuries, locations of injuries, types of injuries (acute or overload), times of injury (trainings or matches) and periods of absence from trainings and matches, in Swedish teams of handball. However, the distribution of males are statistically different, p <0.05. That there are fewer injuries among seniors than juniors leading to absence 8-30 days from the times of matches and training, and more injuries among seniors leading to the absence>30days. Therefore, I which proves no differences between genders and ages in injuries.