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Purpose: To describe and compare the epidemiology of lumbar spine injuries (LSIs) in women’s and men’s ice hockey during the 2009-2010 to 2013-2014 academic years and to investigate sex-specific differences, using data from the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Injury Surveillance Program (ISP) database. Methods: The incidence and characteristics of LSIs were identified utilizing the NCAA ISP. Rates of injury were calculated as number of injuries divided by total number of athlete exposures (AEs). AEs were defined as any student participation in one NCAA-sanctioned practice or competition. Incidence rate ratios (IRRs) were calculated to compare rates of injury between season, event type, mechanism, injury recurrence, and time lost from sport, and injury proportion ratios (IPRs) were calculated to examine the differences in injury rates between men and women. Results: There were a total of 165 LSIs from an average of 10 and 19 women’s and men’s teams, respectively, calculated to 1,254 LSIs nationally. Women were 2.48 times more likely to suffer a noncontact injury than men (95% CI: 1.33-4.61), whereas men were more likely than women to suffer contact LSIs (IPR: .51 [95% CI: .28-.92]). In Divisions II and III, women were 6.64 (95% CI: 4.14-10.64) and 1.28 (95% CI: 1.12-1.46) times more likely to suffer LSIs than men, respectively. Conclusions: Women and men were similarly likely to suffer an LSI, but sex-specific differences existed in a mechanism of injury and likelihood of injury within NCAA Divisions.

Background:Bibliometric citation analyses have been widely used in medicine to help researchers gain foundational knowledge about a topic and identify subtopics of popular interest for further investigations.Purpose:To identify the 50 most cited research publications related to American football.Study Design:Cross-sectional study.Methods:The Clarivate Analytics Web of Science database was used to generate a list of publications relating to football. Articles were filtered by the total number of citations, and the top 50 most cited articles studying the sport of football were selected for this analysis. Articles were analyzed by author, publication year, country of origin, institution affiliation, journal, article type, main research topic area, competitive level, and the level of evidence. A total of 247 articles were reviewed to reach the top 50 articles.Results:The most studied topic within the top 50 articles was concussion/chronic traumatic encephalopathy (n = 40). Collegiate football was the most studied level of competition (n = 25). The journal publishing the greatest number of top articles was Neurosurgery. Two institutions, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Boston University School of Medicine, produced over one-third of top 50 articles (n = 18).Conclusion:Our analysis indicated that most of the top 50 publications related to the sport of football focused on concussion and CTE, were observational, and were published during or after 2000. The most studied level of competition was collegiate football.

Background: Bibliometric citation analyses have been widely used in medicine to help researchers gain foundational knowledge about a topic and identify subtopics of popular interest for further investigations. There is a lack of similar research in collegiate athletics. Purpose: To identify the 100 most-cited research publications related to collegiate athletics. Study Design: Cross-sectional study. Methods: The Clarivate Analytics Web of Knowledge database was used to generate a list of articles relating to collegiate athletics on January 24, 2022. Articles were filtered by the total number of citations, and the 100 most-cited articles were selected. For each article, we identified and analyzed the following: author name, publication year, country of origin, journal name, article type, main research topic area, competitive level, sex of study population, and level of evidence. Results: Of the top 100 most-cited articles, 63 were related to medicine. In total, 96% of articles were published in the United States, and 80% were published in the year 2000 or later. Of the top 100 articles, 85 were observational; only 5 were experimental. The sport most represented was soccer, followed by football, baseball, and basketball. Of the top 100 articles, 21 were published in a single journal, the American Journal of Sports Medicine. Ten authors published ≥5 of the top 100 most-cited studies. Conclusion: The majority of top 100 articles were published in the United States after 1999 and primarily focused on medicine-related topics. Soccer was studied by more articles than football, baseball, and basketball. An author’s prestige may have influenced the likelihood of citation. The top 100 most-cited studies provide researchers, medical students, residents, and fellows with a foundational list of the most important and influential academic contributions to the literature on collegiate athletics.