While the majority of sports medicine literature discusses the incidence andrehabilitation of sports injuries, there is a paucity regarding anathlete’s perception of pain during these injuries. This studydescribes the relationship between the perception of pain from injuries in aTaekwondo collegiate conference and injury characteristics such as injurytype, location, mechanism, time loss, and the athlete’s competitiveexperience. In our study, we obtained reports from 62 Taekwondo athletes whowere injured during the 2008–2009 Pacific West Taekwondo Conferencecollegiate season. Pain was recorded using the Numeric Rating Scale for Painduring athletes’ acute injury and at two weeks, six weeks, andsubsequent monthly follow-ups. Pain scores were highest forsprain/strains (mean 5.4, standard error 0.47) and injuries to thelower body (mean 5.6, standard error 0.36). By mechanism, falls (mean 5.8,standard error 0.67) reported the highest levels of pain. There was asignificant positive association between pain and time loss, where anincrease in pain score of 1 point was associated with about 0.85 days(standard error 0.37) of time lost from training (p=0.0284).Notably, head injuries, although potentially more devastating and attractingwidespread concern, were considered less painful.
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