The grass or turf injury debate has been going on for years now, so long in fact that one team decided to conduct a systematic review of all the studies on grass and turf injuries to help settle the debate once and for all. In today’s blog, we take a closer look at that review and see which playing surface puts your feet and ankles at the greatest risk of injury.
Injuries On Turf Vs. Grass
To get a better understanding of the injury rates when comparing playing surfaces, Heath P. Gould, MD, of Medstar Orthopaedic Institute and colleagues looked at 53 studies published between 1972 and 2020. Only studies that included overall injury rates and lower extremity injury rates were included in their data. Here’s what they uncovered after reviewing all of the results:
- For overall injury rate, researchers identified 32 studies, of which 17 showed no differences between artificial turf and natural grass. 12 studies showed a higher injury rate for turf surfaces, and three showed a higher rate of injury on grass.
- Overall, 13 of 18 studies that focused on new generation turf showed no difference in overall injury rates between playing surfaces.
- Five of nine studies that examined American football reported a higher injury rate on artificial turf.
- 11 of 17 studies showed no difference in injury rate among soccer players. Three articles reported higher injury rates on grass, however authors note that those studies were funded in part by the turf industry.
Foot And Ankle Injuries
- Of the 25 studies on foot and ankle injuries, 12 showed higher rates of injuries on artificial turf, and 10 showed no difference in injuries. Two of the three studies that showed grass had higher injury rates were funded by the artificial turf industry.
- Nine studies that compared new generation artificial turf reported higher injury rates for turf compared to grass.
The findings led researchers to conclude that foot and ankle injuries may be more common on artificial turf surfaces, even if they are using new generation turf, compared to a grass surface.
“There may be an increased rate of injury in foot and ankle across the board on artificial turf, and that is taking all comers across all sports,” said Dr. Gould. “We felt that many studies that reported higher injury rates on natural grass did declare funding from the turf industry, so we need to be very smart as consumers of this literature in terms of how we interpret the data to not extrapolate the wrong conclusions to our practices.”