Author Identifier

Geordie McLeod

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0327-3672

Date of Award

2020

Document Type

Thesis

Publisher

Edith Cowan University

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

School

School of Medical and Health Sciences

First Supervisor

Dr Lauren Fortington

Second Supervisor

Professor Caroline Finch

Third Supervisor

Dr Alex Kountouris

Abstract

The aims of this industry funded PhD thesis were 1) To understand the injury causes, trends and burden in community cricket and 2) To examine the Cricket Australia National Club Risk Protection Program (NCRPP) insurance scheme for suitability as an injury surveillance tool for community cricket.

This thesis sought to identify and understand the injury profile of community cricketers through existing literature and injury datasets, being, Victorian Injury Surveillance Unit (VISU) hospital data, Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) and NCRPP insurance claims data. This thesis also undertook a novel assessment of data validity and completeness from various sources, against industry standards of the Australian Sports Injury Data Dictionary (ASIDD) and cricket injury consensus statements (consensus).

Existing literature using insurance claims data to report sports injury indicated high levels of validity and completeness were possible. Review across all sources of published, community- level, cricket-related injury data revealed acute medically-treated injuries were most commonly fractures, dislocations, sprains and strains. The most common body regions requiring hospital attendance were the wrist/hand and head. The majority of hospital-treated injuries were due to being struck by the ball. The majority of prospectively collected injury data involved junior and/or adolescent players and most often involved bowling cohorts, although fielding was the most commonly reported activity of injury onset. The majority of studies had an unclear likelihood of bias. Reporting completeness was moderate when compared to the ASIDD core items and consensus, with injury mechanism an area requiring improvement.

The ACC provided data, on all cricket-related injury claims, showed high validity with the core items of the ASIDD and the cricket injury consensus statements. The ACC data showed soft tissue injuries were the most common injury nature with bowling the most common activity at injury onset. Lower back and shoulder sprains/strains were the most commonly injured body regions. Four-percent of claims involved lost work time. The NCRPP, collecting specifically organised cricket-related injury not covered by a universal healthcare system, showed fractures to the hands/fingers/thumb and knee sprains were the most common injuries. Fielding was the most common activity at injury onset. Twenty-five percent of claims received loss of income (LOI) payments with knee injuries representing the highest injury burden (weeks LOI/year).

The NCRPP system showed a high level of validity in injury data collection measured against the ASIDD and consensus. The NCRPP data showed a high level of completeness compared to the core items of the ASIDD and a moderate level in comparison with the consensus. The NCRPP system was judged to be useful as a potential injury surveillance system against the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) guidelines. Recommendations for improvements to the system include: 1) Addition of medical diagnosis/history; 2) Inclusion of injury side; 3) Inclusion of new/recurrent injury; 4) Allowance for multiple injuries being recorded separately; 5) Rationalisation of the injury nature terms (e.g. tear/rupture); 6) Reintroduction of injury mechanisms; 7) Addition of protective equipment usage; 8) Introduction of fielding positions; 9) Adopting required input fields in online forms to better capture injury data.

Additional research is required to help validate the representativeness of the NCRPP injury data. Future research into community-level cricket injury would also be better served with a community-level injury surveillance consensus statement.

Download

Share

Paper Location

 
COinS