FREQUENCY AND SEVERITY OF INJURIES FOR COLLEGIATE FEMALE BASKETBALL PLAYERS TAKING ORAL CONTRACEPTIVES: A MULTI-TEAM 1-YEAR PROSPECTIVE STUDY. Steven G. Lesh*; Sharon A. Copeland; Lindsay D. Johnson Physical Therapy, Southwest Baptist University, Bolivar, MO PURPOSE: The purpose of this platform presentation is to present the observed frequency and severity of injuries for female collegiate basketball players from three different teams during a single season that either utilized or did not utilize oral contraceptives (OC). BACKGROUNDS/SIGNIFICANCE: Many studies claim significant differences in the observed injury rates between genders who elect to participate in match sports. Female athletes tend to have higher rates of injury when compared to their male counterparts. One theory suggests that hormonal influences during the menstrual cycle may account as a contributing factor of the increased incidence and that OC may serve as a stabilizing factor to reduce the onset and severity of injury sustained by female athletes. A limiting condition in the researched evidence is that few controlled prospective studies exist. SUBJECTS: 105 NCAA Division II female basketball programs were solicited for volunteers for the prospective study. Nine programs originally accepted, however, due to logistic considerations, only 3 midwest programs were eventually tracked. A total number of 23 volunteered from the three teams with 47.9% (n = 11) utilizing OC. The average age of the OC group was 20.4 years compared to 20.0 years for the non-OC group. METHODS AND MATERIALS: Epidemiological data was collected related to: 1) game, practice or conditioning events, 2) occurrence of injury to a subject, and 3) days lost to injury. Injuries were recorded regardless of mechanism. At the conclusion of the playing season, data were coded and compiled for demographic and statistical analysis. ANALYSES: Descriptive statistics were produced including the observed prevalence of injury for each group. The number of injuries and days lost to injury occurring between the two groups was compared statistically using an independent t-test with an alpha level established at 0.05 and a Levene’s test was used to analyze the equality of variance for the two groups. The power of the study was analyzed if non-significant data was produced. RESULTS: A subject had an opportunity to sustain an injury in 2723 total observed events. OC group participated in 1185 events (43.5%). Thirty-four injuries were observed with 44.1% (n = 15) sustained by OC group. Overall injury prevalence was 12.5 injuries / 1000 exposures (OC group = 12.7/1000; non-OC group = 12.4/1000). Total days lost to injury were 66 with 10.6% (n = 7) accounted by injuries from the OC group. Statistical analysis comparing frequency of injuries occurring in both groups revealed non significant results (t = 0.388, df = 21, p = ns) . A significant difference was observed between the two groups comparing days lost to injury (t = -2.161, df = 12.8, p = 0.050) with the non-OC group demonstrating a greater number of days lost to injury. The observed power for the non significant data was .70 when using days lost to injury as a covariant. CONCLUSIONS: A significant observation was made that female basketball players not utilizing OC tended to have more days lost to injury suggesting a greater severity of injury when sustained. There is no apparent difference between the frequency of injuries between groups either using or not using oral contraceptives. Results from this study suggest that females using OC will experience injuries at the same rate as their non user counterparts, however, the days lost to those injuries are significantly less. Further research is needed to clearly identify or reject the hormonal impact related to the frequency and severity of injuries to female athletes. FUNDING SOURCE: All funding was internal. No external funds were solicited. KEYWORDS: Female Athlete, Oral Contraceptive, Injury Frequency, Injury Severity Copyright 2009 by the American Physical Therapy Association. Requests for reprints should be directed to the corresponding author of the article. Educators, students, and other academic customers may receive permission to reprint copyrighted material from Physical Therapy (ISSN 1538-6724) by contacting the Copyright Clearance Center Inc, 222 Rosewood Dr, Danvers, MA 01923. Other types of customers who want permission to reprint should contact the APTA Editorial Office, Attn: Physical Therapy.