The Prevalence of Concussions and Musculoskeletal Injuries and Access to

Appropriate Medical Care at Elite Taekwondo Tournaments in the Republic of

Korea
Fife GP, Harter RA: Sports Medicine Laboratory, Oregon State University,
Corvallis, OR

Accepted for poster presentation at the 60th NATA Annual Meeting & Clinical Symposia

Context: In the Olympic sport of taekwondo, high velocity kicks and punches to the
head are integral aspects of tournament competition. Little is known about the number
of concussions sustained by participants, the type and availability of sports medicine
care, and the assessment and management protocols used to evaluate the severity of
concussions reported to medical personnel. Objectives: To determine the number and
severity of concussions and other musculoskeletal injuries sustained while participating
in full contact taekwondo sparring tournaments and to evaluate athletes’ access to and
perceptions of the medical services provided at these elite tournaments. Design:
Cross-sectional survey. Setting: Questionnaires were administered to participants in
elite taekwondo tournaments in South Korea, specifically, the 41st Taekwondo National
President’s Cup in 2006 and the 30th Korean National Collegiate Taekwondo
Championships in 2007. Patients or Other Participants: 256 World Taekwondo
Federation certified black belt athletes (183 males, 73 females) of Korean nationality
[age (mean + SD) = 19.2 + 2.5 yrs, years of experience = 8.8 + 3.4 yrs, number of
taekwondo tournaments entered in last 5 years = 23.7 + 13.9]. Interventions: This
investigation used a 28-question, paper-and-pencil Korean language questionnaire.
Responses included dichotomous “yes” or “no” answers with follow-up questions
soliciting the number of concussions experienced, the duration of time lost following
injury, and concussion evaluation methods employed by attending medical personnel.
Four Likert-scale questions were included to gauge athletes’ perceptions concerning the
medical services provided. Main Outcome Measures: We used nonparametric
frequency analysis and descriptive statistics to identify a medical history of concussion
and/or concussion symptoms. Taekwondo athletes were also asked to indicate whether
they had sustained any of 7 different categories of musculoskeletal injury during
tournament competition, e.g., fracture, dislocation, sprain. Results: 14 of 256 athletes
surveyed (5.5%) reported that they had sustained a concussion during a taekwondo
tournament, with 6 subjects (2.3%) indicating that they were disqualified from further
tournament participation due to concussion. In contrast, 100 of these black belt
competitors (39.1%) indicated that they experienced concussion symptoms after a blow
to the head or a fall during tournament competition. With regard to musculoskeletal
injuries, 154 athletes (60.2%) sustained 4 or more categories of injury, with 80 (51.9%)
of these injuries being so severe as to warrant tournament disqualification. Only 34.8%
of taekwondo tournament participants surveyed agreed or strongly agreed that medical
stations were accessible at tournaments, while 32.8% thought that medical personnel
were readily available. Conclusions: While only 5.5% of taekwondo athletes surveyed
had sustained a concussion, nearly 40% experienced concussion symptoms as a result
of tournament participation. None of the competitors who sustained concussions
underwent formal post-concussion assessment of symptoms to grade the severity of
their brain injury. Word Count: 448.

This study funded by an Undergraduate Research Innovation, Scholarship and Creativity grant.