Injury Profile of Inter-Collegiate Athletes: A Cross-Sectional Survey of Body Region, Sport and Training Load

College athletes in India train for university and inter-collegiate tournaments — kabaddi, football, cricket, volleyball, basketball, athletics — often without a team physiotherapist, on uneven grounds and with short pre-season preparation. Injuries are managed with a crepe bandage, a spray and a week off, and nobody records what happened. Without data, a college sports department cannot decide where to spend a small budget: warm-up programmes, ankle taping, strength sessions or physiotherapy cover.

This project is a descriptive cross-sectional survey of about 200 inter-collegiate athletes from colleges affiliated to one university. Using a structured questionnaire built on OSTRC-style injury definitions, it records every injury in the previous 12 months: body region, type (sprain, strain, contusion, fracture, overuse), mechanism (contact or non-contact), time lost, whether a physiotherapist was consulted, and training factors such as weekly hours, warm-up habits and playing surface.

The analysis gives injury prevalence, the distribution of injuries by body region and sport, and tests associations between injury and factors such as warm-up and training hours using the chi-square test in SPSS or Jamovi. It is a beginner-friendly BPT final-year research project for a group of two: low-risk, questionnaire-based, needing only IEC approval and informed consent, and it produces a practical recommendation for the college sports department.

Abstract

A cross-sectional survey was conducted among inter-collegiate athletes aged 18–25 years from colleges of one university to describe the 12-month prevalence and pattern of sports injuries. A pre-tested structured questionnaire recorded demographics, sport, training volume, warm-up and cool-down practice, playing surface, and details of each injury. Data were summarised as frequencies and percentages; associations between injury occurrence and selected factors were tested with the chi-square test at p < 0.05.

Introduction

Sports injuries interrupt training, reduce performance and can end careers early. International surveillance systems classify injuries by body region, tissue type and mechanism, allowing comparison across sports. In Indian colleges, most athletes train without supervision by sports-medicine professionals, and injury data are rarely recorded. Knowing which body regions are most affected in each sport lets physiotherapists design targeted prevention programmes, and knowing how much training time is lost helps coaches and directors argue for physiotherapy cover during tournaments and pre-season conditioning camps.

Review and gap

Published Indian studies describe injuries among professional or national-level athletes and in single sports such as cricket or kabaddi. Few studies look across several sports at the college level, where training conditions and access to care are very different. This project fills that gap for one university's teams.

Research questions

• What is the 12-month prevalence of sports injuries among inter-collegiate athletes?
• Which body regions and injury types are most common in each sport?
• Is injury occurrence associated with warm-up practice, weekly training hours or playing surface?

Feasibility

• Technical: only a questionnaire and a spreadsheet are needed.
• Economic: printing and travel under ₹2,500.
• Time: data collection during two inter-collegiate events or team practice sessions over three weeks.
• Ethical: minimal-risk survey with IEC approval, permission from college physical-education directors, and written informed consent.

Inter-collegiate athletes in India train and compete with limited access to physiotherapy and sports-medicine care, and injuries are rarely documented. College sports departments therefore have no evidence on which sports carry the highest injury burden, which body regions are affected, how much training time is lost, or whether modifiable factors such as warm-up practice and training volume are linked to injury.

This study seeks to describe the 12-month prevalence and pattern of sports injuries among inter-collegiate athletes of one university by sport, body region, injury type and mechanism, and to test the association of injury with warm-up practice, training hours and playing surface, so that prevention and physiotherapy cover can be planned on the basis of data.

In scope

• Athletes aged 18–25 who represented their college in at least one inter-collegiate event in the past year.
• Team and individual sports played in the university's calendar.
• Self-reported injuries in the last 12 months using standard definitions.
• Descriptive statistics and chi-square associations.

Out of scope

• Clinical examination or imaging to confirm diagnoses.
• Prospective injury surveillance through a season.
• Intervention or prevention programmes (recommended as future work).

Study design: descriptive cross-sectional survey.

Setting: colleges affiliated to one university; data collected at team practice sessions and during inter-collegiate events with permission of the physical-education directors.

Sampling: stratified by sport, then convenience sampling within each team.

Sample size: using n = Z²pq/d² with an expected prevalence of 50% (chosen when no reliable local estimate exists, as it gives the largest sample), Z = 1.96 and absolute precision d = 7.5%, n ≈ 171; adding 15% non-response gives about 200 athletes.

Inclusion criteria: age 18–25; represented the college in an inter-collegiate event in the past 12 months; training at least 3 hours per week; willing to consent.

Exclusion criteria: athletes with congenital musculoskeletal deformity or neurological conditions; injuries unrelated to sport (road traffic accidents); incomplete questionnaires (> 20% items missing).

Operational definition of injury: any physical complaint sustained during training or competition that caused the athlete to miss at least one training session or match, or to modify participation, in line with consensus sports-injury definitions.

Tool: a structured questionnaire in four sections — demographics and sport; training profile (years played, weekly hours, warm-up and cool-down, surface, footwear); injury details for each injury (region, type, mechanism, days lost, treatment sought); and recurrence. Content validity by three experts (sports physiotherapist, orthopaedic surgeon, statistician); pilot on 15 athletes; test–retest reliability over one week.

Ethics: IEC approval; permission letters from colleges; participant information sheet and written informed consent as per ICMR National Ethical Guidelines (2017); no names on forms, only coded IDs.

Statistical analysis: frequencies and percentages for prevalence and patterns; cross-tabulation of sport × body region; chi-square test (Fisher's exact test when expected cell counts are below 5) for associations; significance at p < 0.05; SPSS or Jamovi.