Disclosures: Sarah L. Thordarson, MD: No financial relationships or conflicts of interest

Objective: To determine the unique injury prevalence factors in professional competitive gaming (esports)

Design: Anonymous online period prevalence survey of esports professionals

Setting: Anonymous and online

Participants: Thirty-six English-speaking players, 18 years old and older, involved in professional esports for at least 1 year

Interventions: not applicable

Main Outcome Measures: Demographics, the genre of esports, input controller method, hours training per week, total gaming hours, self-reported pain prevalence in 6 body regions (neck, back, shoulder, elbow, wrist, hands/fingers) along with the impact on training and professional competition ability

Results: Esports professionals with a total of over 100 gaming hours per week reported more back pain (p = 0.012). Neck followed by back and wrist pain were the most common body regions impacting competition ability. Wrist pain was most prevalent in training sessions, while back and neck pain interfered most with life outside of esports. Joystick use in the esports fighting genre was associated with 4 times relative risk for upper extremity pain compared to other input controllers.

Conclusions: Unique factors including controller selection correlated with injury in our sample of esports professionals. Injury prevalence may differ among different esports genres. Small sample size due to limited responding esports players highlights the need for continued investigation.

Level of Evidence: Level V

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PM&R Meeting Abstracts - https://pmrjabstracts.org/abstract/prevalence-of-injuries-in-esports/