Background

Particularly at the level of professional athletics, injury prevention is of critical importance. We hypothesized that elevated in-game statistics over a period of 3-10 games places increased cumulative stress on players’ joints and thus predisposes players to injury.

Methods

Utilizing a comprehensive database of National Basketball Association (NBA) player statistics, we identified 34 NBA players who suffered significant in-game injuries during the 2016-2019 seasons, leading them to miss at least ten consecutive games. We then assessed several potential markers of increased player workload during the cumulative one, three, five, and ten games directly preceding the injuries and compared them to season averages for each player.

Results

Increased minutes played per game over the cumulative three (4.9% increase, p = 0.04), five (5.8% increase, p = 0.004), and ten (4.0% increase, p = 0.02) games directly preceding injury were closely related to increased injury occurrence. In-game activity level as measured by statistics such as points scored and rebounds per game did not relate to injury occurrence.

Conclusion

In addition to injury mitigation practices currently used by NBA teams, maintaining players’ minutes played per game constant over time may be an additional effective strategy to be used by coaches and general managers in the future.

中文翻译：

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急剧增加的工作量与国家篮球协会球员的严重受伤有关

背景

尤其是在职业竞技层面，伤害预防至关重要。我们假设在 3 到 10 场比赛中提高的比赛统计数据会增加球员关节的累积压力，从而使球员容易受伤。

方法

利用美国国家篮球协会 (NBA) 球员统计数据的综合数据库，我们确定了 34 名在 2016-2019 赛季遭受严重比赛伤病的 NBA 球员，导致他们至少连续缺席 10 场比赛。然后，我们评估了在受伤前的累积一、三、五和十场比赛中球员工作量增加的几个潜在标志，并将它们与每个球员的赛季平均水平进行了比较。

结果

在受伤前的累计三场（增加 4.9%，p = 0.04）、五场（增加 5.8%，p = 0.004）和十场（增加 4.0%，p = 0.02）比赛中，每场比赛的上场时间增加与受伤前的增加密切相关。伤害发生。用场均得分和篮板等统计数据衡量的比赛中活动水平与受伤发生率无关。

结论

除了目前 NBA 球队使用的减轻伤病的做法外，保持球员每场比赛的上场时间恒定可能是未来教练和总经理使用的另一种有效策略。