The 'vicious circle' of sports injuries: an analysis of 165 athletics (track and field) athletes over a 39-week follow-up using Markov chains.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

To explore (1) the risk of injury according to the number of previous injuries, and (2) the risk of progression of the athletes' health status according to the impact on athletics participation (ie, no injury/healthy (H), injury with full athletics participation (IF), injury with partial athletics participation (IP) or injury with no athletics participation (IN)).

Methods

We performed a secondary analysis of injury data weekly collected using an online self-reported questionnaire from 165 athletics (track-and-field) athletes during 39 weeks. Using Markov chains, we determined the probabilities of (1) sustaining an injury with participation restriction (ICPR=IP+IN) depending on the number of previous ICPR and (2) transitioning from any one injury state to any other

SUBMITTER: Iatropoulos S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12182210 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature