Principles of musculoskeletal sport injuries for epidemiologists: a review

Musculoskeletal injuries are a common occurrence in sport. The goal of sport injury epidemiology is to study these injuries at a population level to inform their prevention and treatment.

This review provides an overview of musculoskeletal sport injuries and the musculoskeletal system from a biological and epidemiologic perspective, including injury mechanism, categorizations and types of sport injuries, healing, and subsequent injuries. It is meant to provide a concise introductory substantive background of musculoskeletal sport injuries for epidemiologists who may not have formal training in the underlying anatomy and pathophysiology.

An understanding of sport injuries is important for researchers in sport injury epidemiology when determining how to best define and assess their research questions and measures.