The purpose of this study was to investigate the injury patterns and risk factors of injuries among high school handball players in Japan. A total of 1299 (709 male and 590 female) subjects who played in the 2018 Japanese National High School Handball Championship participated in this study. The questionnaire on injury experience was distributed two weeks before the championship and was collected at the representation meeting the day before the championship. The main results were as follows: 1) The subjects (n=625, 48.1%) reported experiences of injuries in the previous year. Female had significantly more suffer injuries than male. 2) The main body parts of injuries were the ankle, knee, and finger in traumatic injuries and the lower leg, lumber spine/lower back, and knee in overuse injuries. The main types of injuries were sprain, ligamentous rupture, and fracture in traumatic injuries and stress fracture, other bone injuries, and lesion of meniscus or cartilage in overuse injuries. The main cause of injuries was “contact with another athlete”. 3) Age, female players, and back players were associated with increased the occurrences of injuries. Goalkeepers were associated with decreased the occurrences of injuries. These results indicated that a high prevalence of injuries in high school handball players, and it is important to take preventive measures based on age, gender, and player position.

[Objective] The purpose of this cross-sectional questionnaire-based study is to investigate the challenges of adverse events during treatment by acupuncture and moxibustion to an athlete. [Methods] In total, 1,804 subjects, including athletes who participated in marathons and university athletes were enrolled in this study. The survey was conducted by distributing the questionnaire or via online questionnaire to the athletes who fit the criteria for the study. The questionnaires were collected after consent was received from the participants; online questionnaires were also collected. The questionnaire was examined for age, sex, and type of competition, purpose of the acupuncture treatment and the actual effects, and treated area, content of adverse event, number of times the subjects received acupuncture, and informed consent, and free description of adverse events.[Results] In total, 1,525 (84.5%) valid responses to the questionnaires were received. The survey analyzed 841 subjects (55.1%) who experienced acupuncture and moxibustion. The following responses about adverse events of acupuncture were obtained: "pain at time of needle insertion"; 17.0%, "subcutaneous-bleeding"; 10.1% and "pain and feeling of heaviness due to the needle": 10.0%, among others. For moxibustion, responses included "burns"; 5.9% and "malaise"; 5.8%, among others. In the free description, there were 17 descriptions of discomfort due to excessive stimulation and difficulty in movement during exercise. Of the questions regarding whether or not they received informed consent, 215 were received orally (25.6%), 34 were received in written form (4.0%), 99 were received both orally and in written form (11.8%).[Discussion and Conclusion] Acupuncture for athletes causes a certain rate of adverse events. It was suggested that guidelines for athletes to receive acupuncture safely and training and education for practitioners are important.