02.Cook (1)

Using the World Wide Web to Conduct

Epidemiological Research: An Example

Using the National Basketball Association

John Orchard and Jennifer Hayes

Several Web sites posted detailed information about NBA player injuries during the

1999–2000 and 2000–01 seasons. From these postings, information about injuries to

311 National Basketball Association (NBA) players in 2378 games during the 2 sea-

sons stipulated was collated. These players suffered 593 injuries that caused them to

miss 5819 player games. For every cited injury, a body region was listed (eg, ankle),

with a more specific diagnosis (eg, sprain) being listed 82% of the time by at least 1

Web site. The average injury prevalence (percentage of players missing through in-

jury) was higher among the bench players (15.1%) than the 5 designated starting

players (12.4%) for each team. Some of the reported injuries to bench players might

have been spurious and were possibly cited for the purposes of creating space on the

12-man roster. The true injury prevalence among NBA players in season 1999–2000

was probably at least 12%. Injuries caused more missed playing time in players 30

years or older (

< .001) and players with a body mass index of 26 or higher (

.001). The level of diagnostic detail posted on Web sites and the similarity of the

injury profile to previous surveys of basketball injuries suggest that most of the injury

information on Web sites is fairly accurate.

Key Words:

injury, ankle sprain, patellar tendinitis, Web sites

Key Points

• This article analyzes the status (whether playing, injured, or not playing for other

reasons) of 311 National Basketball Association (NBA) players in seasons 1999–

2000 and 2000–01, based on public information obtained from the World Wide

Web.

• The most commonly injured body areas in NBA players appear to be the knee,

foot, and ankle, which is consistent with previous surveys of basketball injuries.

• Injury prevalence (the percentage of NBA players missing because of injury at

any given time) is at least 12%. The apparent injury prevalence of bench players

is even higher, although it is likely that some of these injuries are spurious and

are cited for the purposes of manipulating roster space.

• Older players and players with a body mass index (BMI) of 26 or higher are more

likely to miss playing time as a result of injury than are younger players and

players with a BMI of 25 or less. Of the starting positions in the NBA, the centers

miss the most playing time because of injuries, and the small forwards miss the

least.

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2 Orchard and Hayes

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The objectives of our study were to review Web sites with information re-

garding injuries in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for seasons

1999–2000 and 2000–01 and to assess the detail of information that is pub-

licly available regarding injuries in this competition.

Data Sources

An initial Web search for NBA and injury was performed with the

LookSmart, Netscape, msn.com, and AltaVista search engines. The results

yielded the following Web sites that consistently posted detailed summa-

ries of injuries to players in the NBA. They are listed in alphabetical order

and numbered from 1 to 13 as they appear in the reference list for the article:

1. ALL IN 1 SPORTS: http://www.allin1sports.com/pb/index2.htm

2. Basketball News: http://basketballnews.com/; http://basketball

news.com/content/fantasy/fantasy_set.asp?main=injury_110800.asp

3. USA Basketball Center Online: http://cybergsi.com/basketball/nba/

schedules/nbainjury.htm

4. CBS SportsLine. Home page: http://cbs.sportsline.com/nba/

index.html ; Injury page: http://cbs.sportsline.com/u/basketball/

nba/injuries/injuries.htm

5. FOX Fantasy Basketball: http://www.foxsports.com/nba/home/

nba_news.cfm?source=st_stat&cont_type_id=669&suppress_

right_rail=true&subnav_key=nba&inset_include=&subsection=injuries

6. ESPN Fantasy Basketball. Home page: http://games.espn.go.com/cgi/

fba/Request.dll?FRONTPAGE ; Injury page: http://games.espn.

go.com/cgi/fba/request.dll?INJURYROOM&Param0=0

7. NBA.com (official NBA Web site). Home page: http://www.nba.com ;

Injury page: No injury page, but has player-by-player status sheet of

games played.

8. The Sporting News. Home page: www.sportingnews.com/nba ; In-

jury page: www.sportingnews.comm/nba/injuries-P.html

9. ESPN.com. Home page: http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/index ; Injury

page: http://espn.go.com.nba/injuries/index.html

10. Yahoo!.Sports: http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/date.html

11. CNN/Sports Illustrated: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/basketball/

nba/injuries

12. Rotonews. Home page: http://www.rotonews.com ; Injury page: http:/

/www.rotonews.com/basketball/DL.cfm

13. USA Today Pro Basketball. Home page: http://www.usatoday.com/

sports/nba.htm ; Injury page: http://www.usatoday.com/sports/

injuries/nbainj.htm

Conducting Epidemiological Research on the World Wide Web 3

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Selection Process

Retrieval of injury information was attempted for the leading 9 players on

each of the 29 teams for the 82-game NBA 1999–2000 and 2000–01 regular

seasons. The 9 players were chosen by position at the start of each season.

The 9 positions chosen were point guard (PG, 1), shooting guard (SG, 2),

small forward (SF, 3), power forward (PF, 4), and center (C, 5), starting

players, and guard (G, 6), guard/forward (GF, 7), forward (F, 8), and for-

ward/center (FC, 9), bench players. A guard was a reserve who would

usually play in either position 1 or 2; a guard/forward, position 2 or 3; a

forward, position 3 or 4; and a forward/center, position 4 or 5.

The threshold definition for an injury was “any medical condition or

injury that prevented a player from participating in a regular-season game.”

Because of this definition, the method for defining an injury was to keep a

game-by-game log of the status of all players under investigation (see Table

1 for an example). If a player did not play in a given round, his status (of

not playing) was assessed as a result of either injury or noninjury reasons

(eg, coach’s decision).

An injury was defined as having been resolved when a player returned

to play in a regular-season game, with any further episode of missed games

after this time (as a result of the same diagnosis) being determined as a

recurrence of the initial injury.

Injury information was collated according to the following levels:

• Level 1: Determination of whether the player participated in a sched-

uled game, and if he did not, whether he missed the game because of

injury or other reasons. Other reasons for missing a game included

coach’s decision (dressed to play but not given any court time), per-

sonal reasons, suspension, and a player being released or waived by

the team.

• Level 2: If a player missed a game because of injury, determination of

which body area was injured.

• Level 3: Determination of type of injury, in addition to body part, for

example, ankle sprain, knee tendinitis. A 3+ grading was given if a

specific medical diagnosis was provided (eg, ankle lateral-ligament

sprain, patellar tendinitis).

Nine players per team were chosen, even though NBA teams keep a 12-

man roster. This was because the bottom 3 players on the roster often do

not get any court time, and it is sometimes difficult to determine whether

this is because injury or selection (coach’s decision). In addition, the bot-

tom players on the roster are often rotated with players 13, 14, and 15 as

part of balancing the roster, with injury sometimes used as a spurious ex-

cuse to take a player off the roster. On most occasions, when a player was

taken off the 12-man roster as a result of injury, another player returning

from injury immediately took his place on the roster. This practice appeared

4 Orchard and Hayes

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Table 1 Lakers’ Player Status for First 10 Rounds of Season 1999–2000*

Round, Date

Player 1, 11/2 2, 11/3 3, 11/6 4, 11/7 5, 11/9 6, 11/10 7, 11/12 8, 11/14 9, 11/15 10, 11/18

SO played played played played played played SUSP played played played

KB I-hand I-hand I-hand I-hand I-hand I-hand I-hand I-hand I-hand I-hand

GR played played played played played played played played played played

DF played played played played played played played played played played

RF played played played played played played played played played played

RH played played played played played played played played played played

AG played played played played played played played played played played

TL played played played played played played played played I-knee I-knee

RH I-knee I-knee I-knee I-knee I-knee I-knee played played played played

*SUSP indicates suspended, and I, injured.

Conducting Epidemiological Research on the World Wide Web 5

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to be accepted among NBA teams and expected by commentators. The fol-

lowing quotes from Web sites are given as examples:

Michael Hawkins was put on the injured list Tuesday with what is

being termed tendinitis in his left knee, but the Hornets needed a

roster spot for Chucky Brown.

SG/SF James was placed on the injured list Monday (1/31) because

of lower back spasms. There were also symptoms of a bad case of

roster space setting in, as the Heat activated SG Rodney Buford to

replace James.

The same 9 players were followed throughout the season, even if they trans-

ferred to another team.

Data Extraction

The major Web sites were regularly checked (at least once every 4 days) for

player-injury details. When contrasting information was posted on differ-

ent Web sites, the site with the most detail was used as the study diagnosis,

based on the presumption that the most detailed information was likely to

be the most accurate. For example, if a player was listed as being out in-

jured with a navicular stress fracture that was scheduled for surgery, it is

most likely that this information was accurate, because it was probably a

specific quote from a medical source associated with the team. If a player

was listed as being out injured with a foot injury, it is probable that this

was his true status, but it is less certain because it is more likely to have

been a quote from a nonmedical person. In football, it is well known that

teams might lie about the details of an injury in order to protect the player

from body contact to the injured part. This is not thought to be as much of

a factor in basketball, because player contact (other than accidental) is ille-

gal, so players cannot “target” an injured body area in an opponent.

Obviously, the gold standard of diagnosis is one made by the player’s

personal physician, and this is the usual standard of information provided

for an injury-surveillance system. There is no limit to the amount of detail

that can theoretically be known by the team physician (eg, right navicular

vertical stress fracture of 4 mm length with 1 mm displacement of frag-

ments and evidence of marginal sclerosis). However, even in injury sur-

veys with access to this information, the injury will be more generally clas-

sified for the purposes of reporting. The most detailed reports of injury

surveys create general diagnoses (eg, number of ankle-sprain injuries), and

many injury surveys report diagnoses only by body part (level-2 informa-

tion), for example, the work of Messina et al.

There is also a “law of peripheral accuracy” in sports medicine, in that

medical diagnoses are very objective for peripheral body parts (eg, knee,

foot, ankle, hands), but in central parts of the body (eg, lumbar spine, groin)

6 Orchard and Hayes

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there is often great disagreement among physicians about the actual diag-

nosis. This applies even when there is full access to imaging studies. Some

authorities believe that the vast majority of lumbar spine pain should be

diagnosed in a very general fashion, because there is rarely any evidence

for a specific tissue diagnosis, for example of L5/S1 discogenic pain.

Results

The Web sites that regularly contained the most injury detail (those with a

3 or 3+ level of diagnosis, that is, body area and specific injury type) were

ESPN Fantasy Basketball,

The Sporting News,

USA Today Pro Basket-

ball,

Rotonews,

and FOX Fantasy Basketball.

There were 29 teams followed over 2 seasons, with 9 players per team

selected, representing a total of 522 player seasons. The regular season lasted

82 games, so there was a total of 42 804 possible games played by these

players. The total number of individual players studied was 311, with av-

erage height of 2.01 ± 0.095 m, weight 99.5 ± 12.6 kg, age 27.6 ± 4.57 years,

and BMI 24.7 ± 1.87. These were tabulated in the format seen in Table 2 (eg,

weight to the nearest 5 kg). For every player game, the status of the player

was posted on at least 1 Web site to at least a level-2 degree of detail (played/

missed because of injury/missed for other reasons, and, when injured, a

body part was listed).

There were 593 new injuries recorded during the season. There were 48

preexisting injuries at the start of round 1 over the 2 seasons, with 545

injuries occurring during the season between rounds 1 and 81, inclusive.

No injuries could occur during round 82, according to the definition of the

study, because an injury must have caused a player to miss a subsequent

game, and round 82 was the final game for each team. The seasonal injury

incidence was 1.13 new injuries per player per season.

Table 2 Injury Prevalence by Player Weight

Weight (kg) Injury Prevalence

80 or less 12.8%

85 11.1%

90 17.7%

95 12.3%

100 13.8%

105 11.4%

110 13.1%

115 20.4%

120 10.8%

125 or more 7.9%

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The vast majority (82.4%) of injury diagnoses were of a level-3 or -3+

degree of detail, meaning that the diagnosis included type of injury, as

well as body part (Table 3).

The common injuries in the following body areas were knee (patellar

tendinitis, arthroscopy for cartilage tear, ligament sprain, quadriceps ten-

dinitis), ankle (sprain, bone spurs, Achilles tendinitis), foot (stress fracture,

ligament sprain, plantar fasciitis), thigh (hamstring strain, groin strain),

low back (muscle spasms), lower leg (calf strain), hand (finger fracture),

and medical illness (flu).

The incidence of new injuries is presented in injuries per 1000 athlete

exposures, with a player game counting as 1 exposure. Because the onset

of injury was not known (ie, whether an injury occurred during a game or

training), the concept of an exposure with respect to this report should

include the training sessions leading up to a game.

Of the 593 new injuries, 130 suffered a recurrence later in the season,

meaning that a subsequent game was missed with the same diagnosis af-

ter the player had returned to game participation.

A total of 5819 player games were missed because of injury for the sea-

son, yielding an average injury point prevalence (referred to hereafter as

injury prevalence) of 13.6%. That is, at any given time in each season, an

average of 13.6% of the 261 players were missing as a result of injury (Table

4). The other common reasons for missing games were coach’s decision, in

Table 3 Injury Frequency by Region and Level of Diagnostic

Detail

Level of Diagnostic Detail

% of all Recurrence

Region 2 3 3+ All injuries rate (%)

Head/neck 3 5 13 21 3.5% 14.3%

Shoulder 3 10 8 21 3.5% 4.8%

Elbow/arm 2 8 4 14 2.4% 21.4%

Hand/wrist 2 32 10 44 7.4% 20.5%

Trunk 3 3 0.5% 0.0%

Back 22 24 5 51 8.6% 29.4%

Groin/hip 3 14 18 35 5.9% 22.9%

Thigh 1 13 16 30 5.1% 23.3%

Knee 29 52 26 107 18.0% 28.0%

Lower leg 6 4 20 30 5.1% 6.7%

Ankle 21 86 18 125 21.1% 27.2%

Foot 10 14 15 39 6.6% 28.2%

Illness 2 47 24 73 12.3% 9.6%

Total 104 309 180 593 100.0% 21.9%

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Table 4 Player Status and Injury Prevalence by Position*

Total

Position Games DNP, DNP, DNP, DNP, DNP, player Injury

number Position played CD PERS SUSP other injured games prevalence

1 point guard 4 159 30 7 7 36 517 4 756 10.9%

2 shooting guard 3 979 15 14 10 53 685 4 756 14.4%

3 small forward 4 284 15 16 2 18 421 4 756 8.9%

4 power forward 4 090 62 6 18 0 580 4 756 12.2%

5 center 3 820 94 2 90 4 746 4 756 15.7%

6 guard 3 822 95 10 3 2 824 4 756 17.3%

7 guard/forward 3 889 161 6 0 50 650 4 756 13.7%

8 forward 3 789 149 22 8 2 786 4 756 16.5%

9 forward/center 3 897 222 17 8 2 610 4 756 12.8%

1–5 starters 20 332 216 45 127 111 2 949 23 780 12.4%

6, 7 bench 15 397 627 55 19 56 2 870 19 024 15.1%

1, 2, 6, 7 guards 15 849 301 37 20 141 2 676 19 024 14.1%

3, 4, 8–10 forwards 19 949 609 67 36 72 3 047 23 780 12.8%

5, 9 centers 7 717 316 19 98 6 1 356 9 512 14.3%

1–9 all players 35 729 843 100 146 167 5 819 42 804 13.6%

*DNP indicates did not play; CD, coach’s decision; PERS, personal reasons; and SUSP, suspension.

Conducting Epidemiological Research on the World Wide Web 9

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which the player dressed to play but was not given any game time by the

coach (843 missed games); personal reasons such as family bereavement

(100 missed games); and suspension from either the league or the team

(146 missed games).

The injury incidence or prevalence for 2 different groups was compared

using chi-square tests to see whether injury rates appeared to differ signifi-

cantly between groups.

Small forwards had the lowest injury prevalence, whereas of the start-

ing players, centers had the highest. Small forwards had a lower injury

prevalence (P < .001) than other starting players, whereas centers had a

higher injury prevalence (P < .001). Injury prevalence is determined by a

combination of incidence and severity. Because centers did not have a higher

injury incidence than the other starting players (P > .10; Table 5), their inju-

ries were slightly more severe (ie, caused a greater number of missed games

per injury). Starting players had a lower prevalence of injury than bench

players did (P < .001; Table 4). Because starting players had more court

time, it would be expected that they would be injured more often. Some of

the injuries to bench players might have been spurious or exaggerated as a

means to free up space on the 12-man roster.

The average injury caused a player to miss 9.8 games (Table 6), with foot

and shin injuries being the most severe on average (some of these injuries

were stress fractures, which result in a large number of games being missed).

Examination of the relationship between injury prevalence and player

morphology shows that injuries caused more missed playing time in play-

ers age 30 or older (P < .001) and those with a BMI of 26 or higher (P < .001;

Tables 2 and 7–9). There was no difference in the injury prevalence be-

tween players of height of 2 m or more and those shorter than 2 m (P > .10).

Table 5 Injury Incidence by Player Position

Incidence (injuries per

Position 1000 player exposures)

Point guard 14.3

Shooting guard 16.2

Small forward 14.7

Power forward 16.8

Center 16.7

Guard 13.5

Guard/Forward 14.3

Forward 20.8

Forward/Center 11.7

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Table 6 Injury Incidence and Severity and Missed Playing Time

Incidence Severity (average Contribution

Body (injuries per 1000 number of games to all missed

area/condition athlete exposures) missed per injury) playing time

Concussion 0.2 3.8 0.5%

Eye 0.1 1.3 0.1%

Jaw 0.0 16.0 0.3%

Neck 0.2 3.5 0.5%

Shoulder 0.6 10.0 3.6%

Elbow 0.4 9.1 2.0%

Triceps 0.0 8.0 0.1%

Hand 1.0 9.3 5.7%

Wrist 0.2 12.1 1.7%

Rib 0.1 5.0 0.3%

Back 1.4 6.1 5.4%

Groin 0.7 10.1 4.7%

Hip 0.2 5.0 0.7%

Hamstrings 0.5 6.9 2.1%

Quad 0.2 15.0 1.8%

Thigh 0.1 1.4 0.1%

Knee 2.5 14.1 26.0%

Calf 0.5 6.7 2.3%

Leg/Shin 0.2 19.1 3.3%

Achilles 0.5 10.3 3.2%

Ankle 2.9 9.7 17.9%

Foot 1.0 17.5 11.7%

Illness 2.0 4.8 6.1%

Total 15.4 9.8 100.0%

Table 7 Injury Prevalence by Player Age

Age Injury prevalence

22 or less 10.5%

23 16.6%

24 14.5%

25 15.3%

26 15.0%

27 12.7%

28 8.4%

29 11.2%

30 17.2%

31 17.9%

32 15.6%

33 16.7%

34 or more 11.0%

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Table 8 Injury Prevalence by Player Height

Height (m) Injury prevalence

1.80 or less 14.0%

1.85 13.4%

1.90 15.6%

1.95 13.1%

2.00 15.7%

2.05 12.4%

2.10 12.2%

2.15 10.2%

2.2 or more 22.9%

Table 9 Injury Prevalence by Body Mass

Index (BMI)

BMI Injury Prevalence

22 or less 7.9%

23 11.8%

24 14.8%

25 12.5%

26 16.0%

27 19.4%

28 or more 14.0%

Table 10 Injury Prevalence and Incidence

by Stage of Season

Incidence

(injuries per 1000

Rounds Prevalence athlete exposures)

1–10 11.4% 17.2

11–20 13.4% 17.6

21–30 14.2% 16.2

31–40 13.9% 11.3

41–50 13.4% 14.0

51–60 12.4% 13.7

61–70 13.6% 15.1

71–80 15.6% 17.6

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There was a slight tendency for heavier players (>100 kg) to have a higher

injury prevalence than did lighter players (100 kg or less; P < .10 but P >

.05).

Over the course of the season, injury prevalence (percentage of players

missing because of injury) rose gradually as chronic injuries started to ac-

cumulate. Injury incidence (the number of new injuries) was steady through-

out the season, with a small drop in the middle of the season (Table 10).

Discussion and Conclusions

There is a great deal of information on injuries to NBA players available

publicly on the World Wide Web. During the 1999–2000 and 2000–01 sea-

sons, each player surveyed had “official” details posted about whether he

played in each game or missed the game. When he missed the game, there

was always at least a level-2 degree of information posted about his injury

status (injured body part was listed), or another reason for missing the

game was cited. Many injuries (82%) had a level-3 or -3+ diagnosis posted

(body part and injury type, or specific medical diagnosis). The level of de-

tail of this information compares favorably even with reports of basketball

injury surveillance published in the medical literature. For example, a re-

cent survey of basketball injuries tabulated injuries by body part and by

injury part but only examined the incidence of 1 specific medical diagno-

sis—ACL sprains.

Obviously, the accuracy of Web-site information is un-

certain, but it is probably accurate in circumstances when specific detail

about an injury is posted, which is in most cases.

There has been 1 detailed report published regarding injury incidence

and prevalence in the NBA.

This study reported on injuries from a single

NBA team over a period of 8 seasons, from 1973 to 1980. This team had a

total of 490 player games missed because of injury over these 8 years, an

average of 61 player games per season. The injury prevalence (calculated

using the methods of the current study) was 7.6%, which is substantially

lower than the injury prevalence from the current study (12.7%). This sug-

gests that injuries are becoming more prevalent in the NBA, which war-

rants further study. The injury incidence for the 2 studies was not compa-

rable, because different definitions were used. The injury profile from the

study of Henry et al

was similar to that of the current study, although an

even higher proportion of games was missed because of knee injuries (66%).

The most common specific diagnoses were ankle lateral-ligament sprains

and patellar tendinitis.

A more recent article reporting on eye injuries in NBA players has been

published.

This article reviewed 59 eye injuries that were recorded by 27

NBA teams (physicians and head trainers) between February 1, 1992, and

June 20, 1993. Although the article reported that NBA players on these 27

teams incurred 1092 injuries (in total) over the same time period, the detail

Conducting Epidemiological Research on the World Wide Web 13

Int SportMed J

was not reported in the article or elsewhere in the sports-medicine litera-

ture.

The areas of greatest injury incidence and prevalence in NBA players,

according to the Web-site postings, are the knee, foot, and ankle. This pro-

file is consistent with previous reports of injuries to basketball players.

14,16,18-

The similarity of the NBA injury profile (according to Web sites) and the

expected injury profile (based on previous publications of basketball inju-

ries) suggests a fair degree of accuracy in the Web-site postings.

Numbers of player games missed as a result of injury by NBA teams in

the season 1999–2000 have been quoted by The Sporting News Web site

and an Athlon Sports preseason preview for season 2000–01.

The teams

with the most player games missed because of injury in 1999–2000 were

the Dallas Mavericks (332 player games), Golden State Warriors (329), New

Jersey Nets (272), Chicago Bulls (246), and San Antonio Spurs (244). These

figures included all players on the roster, which had a limit of 12 active

men at any given time. Because injured players could be replaced on the

roster, however, many more players were able to be included (eg, Golden

State had 23 players with playing time for season 1999–2000). The number

of player games missed as a result of injury for the 9 players in our survey

in 1999–2000 for those listed teams was Dallas 163, Golden State 220, New

Jersey 126, Chicago 196, and San Antonio 105. These example teams show

that the “official” injury rate for players rated at position 10 or below on

the roster is enormous, particularly when considering the fact that these

players receive very little court time. The explanation for this is almost

certainly that most of these injuries are either spurious or exaggerated as a

sanctioned means for creating extra roster space.

It is difficult to determine the accuracy of this survey, but the following

general conclusions can be made:

• Most of the time when a detailed diagnosis is posted, it is probably

accurate. Because this occurs regularly, even for medical diagnoses that

are quite personal and for severe injuries that are career threatening, it

is presumed that there is a low level of medical confidentiality for NBA

players.

• The most common inaccuracy of information regarding NBA injuries

is probably when a fringe player (eighth man or lower) is declared

“injured” by the team in order to make room on the 12-man roster for

another player who is needed more by the team at that time. In this

case, the injury is either a pseudoinjury (fabricated) or, perhaps more

often, a minor injury that has had its severity inflated by the team (ie,

an injury that exists and is limiting the player to some degree, and is

perhaps affecting his selection at that time, but would not be severe

enough to prevent him from playing if he were needed).

• Because the injury information for the top 5 players on each team is

most likely to be accurate, a realistic estimation of the true injury preva-

lence for season 1999–2000 can be made. The true injury prevalence

14 Orchard and Hayes

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probably fell between 12% and 13% for seasons 1999–2000 and 2000–

01.

• The 12-man roster limit, with replacements allowed only when play-

ers are waived or injured, probably leads to an exaggeration of the

number of injuries in the NBA in the media. The NBA should give

consideration to a rule change regarding roster size if it wishes to avoid

the citation of spurious injuries.

• Knee, foot, and ankle injuries are the most frequent and prevalent inju-

ries in the NBA and warrant further study. Formal injury surveillance

with disclosure (publication in the medical literature) would be the

most appropriate starting point for further study.

• This study has shown that medical confidentiality should not be seen

as a deterrent to formal surveillance, because enormous detail regard-

ing injuries is already available on the World Wide Web.

Acknowledgment

John Orchard worked on this study while traveling on the F.E. Johnson Fellow-

ship, funded by the New South Wales Sporting Injuries Committee, Sydney, Aus-

tralia.

References

1. ALL IN 1 SPORTS: http://www.allin1sports.com/pb/index2.htm

2. Basketball News:

http://basketballnews.com/ http://basketballnews.com/

content/fantasy/fantasy_set.asp?main=injury_110800.asp

3. USA Basketball Center Online: http://cybergsi.com/basketball/nba/sched-

ules/nbainjury.htm

4. CBS SportsLine. Home page: http://cbs.sportsline.com/nba/index.html ; In-

jury page:

http://cbs.sportsline.com/u/basketball/nba/injuries/injuries.htm

5. FOX Fantasy Basketball:

http://www.foxsports.com/nba/home/

nba_news.cfm?source=st_stat&cont_type_id=669&suppress_

right_rail=true&subnav_key=nba&inset_include=&subsection=injuries

6. ESPN Fantasy Basketball. Home page:

http://games.espn.go.com/cgi/home/

Request.dll?FRONTPAGE ;Injury page: http://games.espn.go.com/cgi/fba/

request.dll?INJURYROOM&Param0=0

7. NBA.com (official NBA Web site). Home page:

http://www.nba.com ; Injury

page: No injury page, but has player-by-player status sheet of games played

8. The Sporting News. Home page:

www.sportingnews.com/nba ; Injury page:

www.sportingnews.comm/nba/injuries-P.html

9. ESPN.com. Home page: http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/index ; Injury page:

http://espn.go.com.nba/injuries/index.html

10. Yahoo!.Sports:

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/date.html

Conducting Epidemiological Research on the World Wide Web 15

Int SportMed J

11. CNN/Sports Illustrated: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/basketball/nba/in-

juries

12. Rotonews. Home page: http://www.rotonews.com ; Injury page: http://www.

rotonews.com/basketball/DL.cfm

13. USA Today Pro Basketball. Home page: http://www.usatoday.com/sports/

nba.htm ; Injury page: http://www.usatoday.com/sports/injuries/nbainj.htm

14. Messina DF, Farney WC, DeLee JC. The incidence of injury in Texas high school

basketball. A prospective study among male and female athletes. Am J Sports

Med. 1999;27(3):294-299.

15. Bogduk N. What’s in a name? The labelling of back pain. Med J Aust.

2000;173:400-401.

16. Henry JH, Lareau B, Neigut D. The injury rate in professional basketball. Am J

Sports Med. 1982;10(1):16-18.

17. Zagelbaum BM, Starkey C, Hersh PS, Donnenfeld ED, Perry HD, Jeffers JB.

The National Basketball Association eye injury study. Arch Ophthalmol.

1995;113(6):749-752.

18. Colliander E, Eriksson E, Herkel M, Skold P. Injuries in Swedish elite basket-

ball. Orthopedics. 1986;9(2):225-227.

19. McKay GD, Goldie PA, Payne WR, Oakes BW. A comparison of the injuries

sustained by female basketball and netball players. Aust J Sci Med Sport.

1996;28(1):12-17.

20. Gomez E, DeLee JC, Farney WC. Incidence of injury in Texas girls’ high school

basketball. Am J Sports Med. 1996;24(5):684-687.

21. Zelisko JA, Noble HB, Porter M. A comparison of men’s and women’s profes-

sional basketball injuries. Am J Sports Med. 1982;10(5):297-299.

22. Doster R, ed. Pro Basketball Edition 2000–2001 Pro Preview. Nashville, Tenn:

Athlon Sports; 2000.