Incidence of injuries in judo and the potential preventive interventions: A Systematic Review

Purpose: This systematic review aims to determine the incidence of judo-related injuries among judokas and identify available preventive interventions. Methodology: A comprehensive literature search was conducted across three electronic databases to identify articles relevant to the topic: PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science and Science Direct. All the articles that met our inclusion criteria were included in the systematic review. Results: The electronic search yielded 740 articles, of which only 15 met the inclusion criteria and were included in the systematic review. Across the studies, the incidence of judo-related injuries was 15.79 to 71.43 injuries per 1000 athletic events (AEs). The upper and lower extremities were the most injured body parts. The trunk and the head were the body parts that were the least injured among the judokas. Regarding injury type, the most common injuries across the studies were sprains and strains, fractures and contusions. Conclusions: Our results indicate that the incidence of judo-related injuries is relatively lower than that of other combat sports, such as mixed martial arts (MMA). However, there are inconsistencies in reporting these injuries across the different studies. Future studies should, therefore, adopt a standardized method of reporting outcomes to enable the pooling of results. Lastly, research on the development of injury-preventive interventions in judo remains limited. Consequently, further studies are needed to evaluate and validate various approaches to injury prevention.
© Copyright 2025 Acta Kinesiologica. DPTZK LjubuĆĄki. All rights reserved.

This article was published in a journal or by a publisher with questionable publication methods according to the criteria of the Beall's list.

Bibliographic Details
Subjects:
Notations:combat sports
Published in:Acta Kinesiologica
Language:English
Published: 2025
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.51371/issn.1840-2976.2025.19.1.2
Volume:19
Issue:1
Document types:article
Level:advanced