Gender Inequality in Reporting Injuries of U.S.A. Collegiate and Professional Athletes: a Narrative Review

Background The purpose of this study was to provide a detailed summary of current publicly available primary and secondary literature, databases, and websites reporting sports-related injuries among male and female collegiate and professional athletes in the United States of America (U.S.A.) to determine whether gender disparities exist in injury reporting. Methods A search was performed in July 2022 using PubMed and Google Scholar to identify studies reporting male and/or female collegiate and professional athlete injuries to identify databases recording this data. Search terms included: gender OR female OR male AND sport OR athlete AND injury AND professional OR collegiate OR college AND soccer OR “baseball OR softball” OR basketball OR hockey. Google Search Engine was used to identify websites/databases. Sports of focus included soccer, baseball/softball, basketball, and hockey for all sports-related injuries in the U.S.A. Results The initial search on PubMed and Google Scholar yielded 1,684 studies. Seven websites and four studies met inclusion criteria. Six websites (85.7%) contained injury information focusing on baseball (16.7%), basketball (33.3%), or hockey (50%); one (14.3%) included all sports. No comparable website for female professional athletes identified. The NCAA has an Injury Surveillance Program for collegiate athletes. Four studies detailed methods for information on female collegiate and professional athletes. Conclusion While male athletes have injury surveillance programs across various sports, comparable databases for female athletes are lacking. This finding highlights the need for comprehensive injury databases for female athletes, given their increasing participation rates and comparable injury risk to male athletes. Expanding access to injury data for female athletes would aid in tracking risk ratios, creating injury prevention programs, developing treatment protocols, and evaluating outcomes following injury – crucial for healthcare providers and researchers. Adapting existing systems, or creating accessible, filterable databases or websites could be vital for effective, targeted prevention and treatment strategies.