Recreational windsurfing-related acute injuries: a narrative review. Part 1: injury epidemiology and a proposal for standardized injury definitions.

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this review was to identify the epidemiology of, and develop standardized injury definitions for, acute injuries among recreational windsurfers.

Methods: A literature search was conducted from the PubMed and Google Scholar databases through February 28, 2023, using relevant keywords with Boolean operators, such as "windsurfing" AND "epidemiology" AND "risk factors." Only peer-reviewed, relevant windsurfing-related injury articles were included.

Results: A wide range of acute injuries, from minor, moderate, severe, to catastrophic, were reported. Injury rates, frequency of anatomical distributions, existing and potential risk factors, the proposed standardization definitions of behaviour types, skill levels, general windsurfing-related injuries, and injury severity classifications and levels for windsurfing epidemiology were identified and tabled.

Conclusions: There is inconsistency in the epidemiological methods and definitions of windsurfing research. The injury rates remain difficult to compare among the identified studies. Future in-depth windsurfing-related injury studies should focus on prospective designs using standardized injury definitions.