The Relative Age Effect and Injury Burdens among Malaysian Collegiate Track and Field Athletes

This study investigated the Relative Age Effect (RAE) with training exposure and injury prevalence in Malaysian collegiate track and field athletes. Specifically, the aim of the study was to determine if there are differences in training volume and reported injury prevalence across birth quartiles and to investigate the association between training volume and injury outcomes. A cross-sectional quantitative approach was used which comprised 54 Malaysian collegiate track and field athletes (29 males, 25 females; M = 22.11 ± 2.09 years) recruited through criteria-based sampling. Demographic information, retrospective training exposure and injury history were provided using an adapted Participation History Questionnaire. Injury burden was defined as mean annual number of injury weeks, and injury rate was defined as injury rate per 1000 training hours. Birth dates were divided into 4 quartiles (Q1-Q4). The Spearman correlations between average annual training hours and injury outcomes for male and female athletes were small and not statistically significant. Furthermore, statistically significant differences were not found between birth quartiles in average training hours (H = 1.11, p = .774), average weeks of injury (H = 4.01, p = .260) and injury rate per 1,000 training hours (H = 4.11, p = .250) with effect sizes ranging from negligible to small. These results indicated that birth quartile is not a significant determinant of training exposure or injury prevalence at the collegiate level. Although RAE may affect the early selection pathway, the impact of RAE appears to diminish by collegiate participation (i.e., more attenuation on injury risk). Injury prevention strategies in collegiate track and field should therefore focus on individual workload monitoring and adaptive capacity rather than the relative age-based category.