Abstract
Hassebrock JD, Patel KA, Makovicka JL, Chung AS, Tummala SV, Peña AJ, Williams KE, Hartigan DE, Chhabra A. Lumbar spine injuries in National Collegiate Athletic Association athletes: a 5-season epidemiologic study. Orthop J Sports Med. 2019;7(1): 2325967118820046. (Original DOI: 10.1177/2325967118820046)
This article has been revised and republished due to the choice of statistical analysis of the data concerning how exposures were calculated. In the original paper, injury rates were calculated using “event-exposures” rather than “athlete-exposures” as defined by the NCAA ISP. An “event-exposure” includes only the number of events (practices, competitions, etc) rather than all of the athletes participating in that event. An “athlete-exposure” instead includes all of the athletes participating in an event (the sum of all the athletes in each competition and practice). In the revised article, all rates are calculated using “athlete-exposures” to be consistent with the current literature.
If calculated for “event-exposure,” the reports of this paper are accurate; however, since the standard for literature has been to report numbers and rates using athlete-exposures, the authors felt it was more accurate and appropriate to submit a revision with the results and conclusions drawn from this study calculated for “athlete-exposures.”
Changing the denominator of the statistical analysis subsequently changed the numbers and, therefore, the conclusions of the paper. The main findings that changed are as follows: Women are 1.11 times more likely to suffer a lumbar spine injury (LSI) than men for sex-comparable sports. Women’s gymnastics had the highest overall rate of LSIs. The conclusions in the original paper relating to season, time loss from sport, and mechanism were not significantly changed as a result of the rates being recalculated using athlete-exposures.
Due to the substantial number of edits necessary to address the above revisions, the journal determined republication of the article would allow readers to follow the article more effectively than a separate notice of the changes. This correction notice includes for reference a watermarked version of the article as published on January 23, 2019.