Epidemiological Review of Badminton Related Injuries Among Competitive Badminton Players

As the fastest racket sport in the world, playing badminton involves jumps, lunges, multidirectional movements with fast-spaced changes of direction, rapid postural changes, repetitive movements of upper limb and prolonged gripping of racket with high velocity movements. These high physical demands for badminton suggest that injuries related to badminton among players may have a frequent occurrence. Therefore, the epidemiology of badminton related injuries had been studied among competitive (elite and sub elite) players and recreational players of all ages in many countries. Therefore, the current review discusses the literature on epidemiology (incidence/prevalence, severity, location, type, competition/practice injuries) of badminton related injuries among competitive badminton players in diverse populations. The search strategy included PubMed, Science Direct and Google Scholar search from the year 1979. Fourteen (14) studies which have investigated epidemiology of badminton injuries were found. Injury incidence/prevalence was diverse in different populations. Majority of badminton related injuries are recoded as mild injuries. Lower limb was recorded as the most susceptible region for badminton related injuries. Overuse injuries have been recorded as the dominant type of injury. Dominance of competition/practice injuries was diverse in different populations. It is evident that the epidemiology of badminton related injuries shows a population difference. Investigating the epidemiology of injuries in a given population is required to understand the extent of injuries and identify the priority areas to implement specific injury prevention progammes.