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A Global Women’s Rugby Union Web-Based Survey

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posted on 2023-04-24, 11:39 authored by Natalie Brown, Geneviève K. R. Williams, Anna Stodter, Melitta A. McNarry, Olga Roldan-Reoyo, Kelly A. Mackintosh, Izzy MooreIzzy Moore, Elisabeth M. P. Williams

 Rugby Union (rugby) is a full-contact team sport characterised by frequent collision events. Over one third (2.7 million) of global rugby participants are women and girls. Yet, most rugby research, laws, and regulations are derived from the men’s game with limited transferability to the women’s game. This includes research focused on injury and concussion management. Greater insights are urgently required to enable appropriate adaptations and support for all rugby participants. Therefore, this paper presents the protocol for a project that sought to gather insights into the understanding, experiences, and attitudes of players and coaches in women’s rugby regarding key issues of concussion, injury, and training for injury prevention, as well as the implications of the menstrual cycle for training and performance. From August 2020 to November 2020, online, open, cross-sectional surveys for players and coaches were distributed globally through rugby governing bodies and women’s rugby social media platforms using snowball sampling. Survey responses were recorded anonymously via a GDPR-compliant online survey platform, JISC (jisc.ac.uk, Bristol, England). Participant eligibility included being ≥18 years and either actively playing or coaching women’s rugby 15s and/or sevens, or having done so in the past decade, at any level, in any country. To enhance the number and accuracy of responses, the survey was professionally translated into eight additional languages. A total of 1596 participants from 62 countries (27 ± 6 years; 7.5 ± 5.1 years of playing experience) and 296 participants from 37 countries (mean age = 36.64, SD = 9.09, mean experience = 6.53 years, SD = 3.31) completed the players’ and coaches’ surveys, respectively. Understanding women’s participation in and experiences of rugby is important to enable lifelong engagement and enjoyment of the sport and health during and following participation. 

History

Published in

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

Publisher

MDPI

Version

  • VoR (Version of Record)

Citation

Brown, Natalie, Geneviève K. R. Williams, Anna Stodter, Melitta A. McNarry, Olga Roldan-Reoyo, Kelly A. Mackintosh, Isabel S. Moore, and Elisabeth M. P. Williams (2023) "A Global Women’s Rugby Union Web-Based Survey," International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 20, no. 8: 5475. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20085475

Electronic ISSN

1660-4601

Cardiff Met Affiliation

  • Cardiff School of Sport and Health Sciences

Cardiff Met Authors

Isabel Moore Izzy Moore

Cardiff Met Research Centre/Group

  • Applied Injury Science

Copyright Holder

  • © The Authors

Language

  • en

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