Citation

Freitag A, Kirkwood G, Pollock AM. BMJ 2015; 350: h1587.

Affiliation

Centre for Primary Care and Public Health, Queen Mary University of London, London E1 4NS, UK a.pollock@qmul.ac.uk.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, BMJ Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1136/bmj.h1587

PMID

25900039

Abstract

... A meta-analysis of rugby injuries among adult rugby union players found an overall incidence of injury of 81 per 1000 player hours,14 three times that of child and adolescent players (26.7 per 1000 player hours). So adult players can expect to be injured once every 9.3 matches on average, assuming that each match is 80 minutes long.

Recent high profile cases have exposed the mismanagement of concussion on the rugby field, sometimes with fatal consequences. The risk of concussion and reduced cognitive and motor function in later life is also high in other collision sports including American football and ice hockey. In the United States a settlement of at least $1bn (£680m; €940m) has been granted preliminary approval by the judge in a case against the National Football League brought by former players over failure to inform them of the risks of concussion.20 Multiple autopsy findings reveal chronic traumatic encephalopathy in the brains of former professional wrestlers and players of American football, ice hockey, and rugby.

The aim of this paper is to establish whether rule changes and injury prevention strategies around the world have been successful in reducing injury rates in rugby....

Language: en