News Release

Lack of physical fitness causes higher sports injury rates among women

Peer-Reviewed Publication

Center for Advancing Health

A new study may help explain why women are more prone to sports injuries than men, as previous research has suggested. Lack of physical fitness, rather than gender differences, may be the cause, according to a study of Army trainees.

"These results suggest that gender per se is not as good an indicator of injury risk as overall physical fitness, and therefore the excess risk women experience may be reduced through modified training programs," said lead author Nicole S. Bell, ScD, MPH, of Social Sectors Development Strategies, Inc., and Boston University School of Public Health, in Boston, MA.

Bell and colleagues followed a group of 861 male and female Army trainees over the course of their eight-week basic combat training course. Muscle endurance and aerobic fitness were measured at the start and end of the course by an Army physical fitness test involving push-ups, sit-ups, stretching, and one- or two-mile runs.

Women experienced approximately twice as many injuries as men, overall. Also, their risk for more serious injuries (that led to at least one day of lost duty) was almost 2.5 times greater than the risk for male trainees, the researchers found.

Considered alone, these results suggest that female gender is linked with higher injury risk. However, when the researchers took into account the fitness levels of the female trainees -- who were less physically fit than the male trainees as measured by the Army fitness test -- they reached another conclusion. "Much of the gender-injury relationship appears to be explained by physical fitness, in particular aerobic fitness, as opposed to gender per se," said Bell.

The slowest runners, whether male or female, experienced more sports injuries than the fastest runners, the researchers found. Both males and females with the fastest run times had the lowest injury risks. "Women and men at same levels of fitness can be expected to have similar injury risks when performing similar activities," said Bell.

The researchers also found that the female trainees improved their levels of fitness faster -- approximately twice as fast -- as the male trainees, during the eight-week training period. This finding is consistent with previous research indicating that those who start training at lower initial fitness levels experience greater fitness improvements relative to those who are relatively fit when they begin training.

Women's sit-up scores improved by 98 percent, versus a 44 percent improvement for men; push-up scores improved by 156 percent compared to 54 percent for men; and aerobic fitness improved by 23 percent compared to 16 percent for men, the researchers found. The study results appear in the April 2000 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

"These results suggest that women and men initiating a vigorous physical training or exercise program, who exhibit low levels of physical fitness, are more likely to be injured by training activities, but will also improve their level of fitness more rapidly than their more fit peers," said Bell.

Women can substantially improve their fitness levels with training, according to Bell. "In the early phase of training it may be wise to assign trainees to fitness-appropriate levels of training and progress slowly to more advanced training as their fitness improves," she suggested.

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The American Journal of Preventive Medicine, sponsored by the Association of Teachers of Preventive Medicine and the American College of Preventive Medicine, is published eight times a year by Elsevier Science. The Journal is a forum for the communication of information, knowledge, and wisdom in prevention science, education, practice, and policy. For more information about the journal, contact the editorial office at (619) 594-7344.

Posted by the Center for the Advancement of Health http://www.cfah.org. For information about the Center, call Petrina Chong, pchong@cfah.org (202) 387-2829.


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