Gender based disparities in research on injuries in NCAA athletes.

Abstract

Females participate in clinical research at a much lower rate than males, leading to clinical outcome disparities. The objective of this study was to determine whether gender-based disparities exist in orthopedic sports medicine injury research on NCAA college student-athletes. A PubMed search was conducted in September 2023 using the search terms 'NCAA,' 'injury,' and each of the 24 individual NCAA sports between 1980 and 2023. Statistical analysis was performed via determination of adjusted correlation coefficient R² and multiple linear regression models. Gender was the independent variable, number of studies was the dependent variable. Of 1,553 studies initially identified, 790 met inclusion criteria and underwent full-text review. Of NCAA studies that assessed injury rates (injury rate studies) and those that evaluated other outcomes such as performance (non-injury rate studies), 468 of 790 (59%) discussed male collegiate athletes and 318 (40%) discussed females. For females, there was a negative association between athlete-exposure rate and injury rate studies (expected decrease of 0.31 studies per 100,000 athlete-exposures) and between athlete-exposure rate and non-injury rate studies (decrease of 0.007). For males, there was a positive association for each (increase of 1.15 and 1.96). Injury rates were positively associated with injury rate study numbers for both males and females (increase of 3.71). There was no significant relationship between injury rates and non-injury rate study numbers for either gender. This study demonstrates gender disparities in orthopedic sports medicine injury research for collegiate athletes. There was a negative association between athlete-exposure rate and injury rate or non-injury rate studies for female NCAA athletes, but a positive association for males. It is important to ensure that sports medicine research is focused on both male and female NCAA athletes to be able to evaluate injuries, outcomes, and opportunities for injury prevention.