Objective

The objective of this study was to determine the incidence, characteristics and risk factors of injuries to French golfers high-level.

Material and methods

It was a national retrospective study by mailing a questionnaire to all the French Golf licensed under ten handicap. The questionnaire collected information on the characteristics of the player, practicing golf, equipment and the occurrence or not of an injury during the season 2015. A descriptive analysis and a comparison between the injured and uninjured golfers were made, followed by univariate and multivariate analysis to investigate potential risk factors.

Results

A total of 1382 golfers returned a full questionnaire and were therefore included in the study. We found 712 injuries (52%) and an incidence of 1.99 injuries per 1000 hours of playing golf. The most frequent injuries were at: lumbar spine (21.2%), the dominant shoulder (7.8%) and the thoracic spine (7.4%). An analysis was also performed by gender who did not find differences in the occurrence of an injury between women and men. The injury number 1 in men was located at the lumbar spine (23.1%) and among women in the dominant shoulder (11%) and lumbar spine (11%). We noted a recurrence in 37% of injuries in women and 44.8% in men. The injury dragged her into 53% of cases in men and 56.1% in women judgment of golf and in 9.4% of men and 8.7% of women work stoppage. Protective factors highlighted were the absence of upper limb overuse or wearing heavy workload, lack of monitoring by a golf professional ( P = 0.026). Contributing factors were a number of months per year high set ( P = 0.0127) and recent use of clubs ( P = 0.0034).

Discussion/Conclusion

Golf is a provider of injuries with a high-level of golfer two injuries in a season. Prevention must be the heart of the management of golfer taking into account the protective factors and risk factors.