Warm-up Knowledge, Level of Practice and its Correlation with Injury Prevalence in College Athletes

Objective: To assess the knowledge and practice of warm-up among athletes and, find out the relationship between warm-up and injury prevalence. Warm-up is a widely accepted practice and is universally performed as efficient tool to improve physical performance in sports and athletic events. Young athletes often do not warm-up adequately and run the risk of injury. This could be attributed to a low level of knowledge about the importance of warm-up. Adequate knowledge of the potential benefits of warm-up and a positive attitude towards it can aid the minimization of sports related injuries and encourage student athletes to adopt structured programs that would improve performance.

Methods: A cross sectional survey included 250 athletes from non-medical colleges within the age group 15 to 25 years who had participated in athletics and sports at different levels of competition. Participants completed a questionnaire, the data of which were analyzed.

Results: Study findings showed that most of the athletes (68.4%) showed moderate knowledge of warm-up while majority (71.2%) exhibited excellent practice of warm-up. Injury prevalence reported as 71.2% among the participants. There was no correlation between knowledge and injury prevalence (χ²=5.03, p=0.388, NS) as well as level of practice and injury prevalence (χ²=6.43, p=0.109, NS).

Conclusions: While adequate knowledge and practice of warm-up may not lessen the incidence of injury, further investigation into the practice of warm-up specific to activity is required to draw more comprehensive conclusions.