The incidence of floorball injuries: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Objective: Floorball is a swift sport; players perform multiple quick turns during practices and games. The aim of this study was to examine the incidence of floorball injuries. In addition, we aimed to examine the differences in the incidences between sexes and anatomical locations. Methods: The PubMed (National Library of Medicine), Web of Science (Clarivate), Scopus (Elsevier), and SPORTDiscus (EBSCO) databases were searched from inception to January 6th, 2023. A study was eligible for analysis if the number of injuries per exposure time was reported. The study protocol was prospectively registered in the PROSPERO database (CRD42023390659). Results: The total pooled incidence of floorball injuries was 2.28 (confidence interval [CI] 1.27 to 4.10) injuries per 1000 h for all included studies. For females, the pooled incidence was 2.33 (CI 1.22 to 4.46) injuries per 1000 h, and for males, the incidence was 1.98 (CI 1.83 to 2.14) injuries per 1000-h. For adults, the pooled incidence was 3.11 (CI 1.58 to 6.12) injuries per 1000 h and for youths, the incidence was 1.40 (CI 0.50 to 3.94) injuries per 1000 h. Conclusions: The incidence of floorball injuries is high, especially among women. When considering the growing popularity of floorball, these pooled incidences serve as reference values for future injury prevention programs.