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Injury in the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) From 2015 to 2019
Authors
Hayden Baker; Andrew Rizzi; Aravind Athiviraham.
Abstract
Purpose
To provide an overview of the injuries suffered by Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) athletes and to analyze the demographic data, injury rates, and games missed as a result of individual injuries.
Methods
Using publicly available data on WNBA player’s injury history, we generated a database cataloguing the quantity, location, frequency, and longitudinal impact of injuries sustained during the WNBA regular season from 2015 to 2019. We analyzed the data using SPSS-25 data manipulation software to assess the number of injuries per athletic exposure.
Results
Lower-extremity injuries (n = 143, 73%) were the most common injury by body area and resulted in the greatest number of games missed (n = 1189, 88%). Lateral ankle sprains were the most frequent injury (n = 39, 20%), with a rate of 1.19 injuries per 1000 athletic exposures. Torn anterior cruciate ligaments (n = 18, 9.2%) were the most devastating, resulting in the greatest number of games missed (n=376, 28%).
Conclusions
Our findings corroborate previous notions that lower-extremity injuries are the greatest source of injury in this population. Ankle injuries were the most frequent injury reported by pathology, while knee injuries carried the most long-term impact on games missed due to injury.
Level of evidence
IV, Epidemiological study.