Chronic injury

Key Take Aways

✅ Given all these differences, It would stand to reason that injuries would be different as well

✅ Female injury rates, etiology, etc need more research as these differences are apparent but not much is known about their roles in injury

Population

Male and female climbers with > 3 years climbing experience

Summary

Females remain under represented in research. That’s why I’m stoked when I find articles that report gender specific results. Researchers like @dr.g_climbing continue to highlight these under represented populations

A 2018 study collected data using the interwebs and social media on 667 participants to answer survey questions about injuries sustained in the last 6 months.

The data was split into various categories from site of injury, experience level, place of climbing, and gender

Most frequently injured sites overall
➡️ 41% fingers
➡️ 20% shoulders
➡️ 17% elbows

Female most frequently injured sites
➡️ 29% fingers
➡️ 22% shoulders
➡️ 13% wrist

Male most frequently injured sites
➡️ 45% fingers
➡️ 20% elbow
➡️ 18% shoulder

Certainly further research is needed to understand these differences. The author suggests that the higher prevalence in wrist injuries in females could be related to the higher prevalence in carpal tunnel syndrome in females

In general, males and females have different
✅ Muscular builds
✅ Flexibility abilities
✅ Movement repertoires
✅ Movement styles
✅ Centers of gravity
✅ Beta

CItation

Grønhaug G. Self-reported chronic injuries in climb- ing: who gets injured when? BMJ Open Sport Exerc Med. 2018;4(1)

Link

https://bmjopensem.bmj.com/content/bmjosem/4/1/e000406.full.pdf