Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Availability

Open Access Thesis

Keywords

Elbow--Wounds and injuries--Forecasting; Baseball injuries--Forecasting; Academic theses;

Abstract

Injuries to the elbow are common among overhead throwers, especially in baseball players. There has been speculation that medial ulnar collateral ligament (MUCL) injuries have been increasing over the past fifteen years, however, population based estimates of MUCL injuries currently do not exist. The purpose of this study was to determine MUCL injury incidence rates derived from the National Center for Health Statistics over a three-year period. Non-identifiable, aggregate data provided by the National Center for Health Statistics were used in this study. The two main databases utilized were the NAMCS and the NHAMCS. Injury data from 2003 - 2005 were evaluated to determine frequency distributions of MUCL injury for the following variables: age, gender, and year. Incidence rates were calculated for each variable with 95% confidence intervals. The total overall incidence rate of MUCL injuries was 88.84 per 100,000 people (95% CI= 88.64, 89.04). Females had a higher overall total incidence rate of 121.45 per 100,000 people (95% CI= 121.15, 121.80) compared to males, 54.72 per 100,000 people (95% CI= 54.50, 54.94), over three years. The 15-24 year old age division showed the highest injury risk at 242.81 per 100,000 people (95% CI= 241.94, 243.69), followed by the 65 and older group at 164.51 per 100,000 people (95% CI= 163.43, 165.58). The 45-64 year old age group had the lowest prevalence (33.75 per 100,000 people; 95% CI= 33.50, 34.00) of MUCL injuries. In conclusion, incidence rates for MUCL injury appeared to increase over the three years and the 15-24 year old age group showed the highest incidence rates. However, the greatest finding was that females had a 2.5 times higher incidence rate in MUCL injury when compared to males. Although these results are important, they should be interpreted with caution because injuries to the MUCL are rare.

Year of Submission

2008

Degree Name

Master of Science

Department

School of Health, Physical Education, and Leisure Services

First Advisor

Brian Ragan

Second Advisor

Mickey Mack

Third Advisor

Robin Lund

Comments

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Date Original

2008

Object Description

1 PDF file (87 leaves)

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

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