Sport and active recreation injuries in Australia: evidence from emergency department presentations.

Abstract

Objective-Despite the rise in specialist clinical services for the management of sports and active recreation injury, many patients attend hospital emergency departments for treatment. The purpose of this study was to describe sports injury cases presented to selected hospital emergency departments around Australia for the period 1989-1993. Methods-Routinely collected emergency department injury presentation data from the Australian National Injury Surveillance Unit were examined. Data on 98 040 sports and active recreation emergency department presentations were analysed. Sports and active recreation activities were ranked according to frequency of presentation. Relative proportions of injury type and body region injured were determined. Data are presented separately for children (<15 years of age) and adults (>15 years of age). Results-Among the 10 activities that most commonly led to a sports or active recreation injury presentation for all ages were cycling, Australian football, basketball, soccer, cricket, netball, and rugby. For children, injuries were also commonly associated with roller skating/blading, skateboarding, and trampolining. Hockey, martial arts, and dancing injuries were frequent in adults. Most sporting injuries occurred during organised competition or practice whereas the active recreation injuries occurred in a variety of settings. Fractures, strains, and sprains, particularly to the lower and upper extremities, were common types of injury. Conclusion-The rich, but nevertheless limited, information available about sports and active recreation injuries from data collected in emergency departments indicates that these activities are a common context for injury at the community level in Australia. (Br J Sports Med 1998;32:220-225)

Child injuries in Bergen, Norway

“…59 In Australia the Australian style of football, basketball, soccer, cricket, netball and rugby caused most fall injuries in sports. 47 In a Danish study boys were most often injured in soccer, skateboard, handball, gymnastics and basketball, and girls in handball, horseback riding, gymnastics, basketball and roller-skating. 165 …”

Basketball Injuries

“…Overall, soft tissue injuries (contusions and abrasions) were the next most common type(s) of injuries reported, accounting for 15-36% of cases [17,18,23,26,29,41,43], although Belechri et al [42] reported a range of 17.4-55% in five European countries. This group also reported the greatest percentage of fractures (17-36%), possibly due to the high number of hand/finger injuries reported.…”

“…This group also reported the greatest percentage of fractures (17-36%), possibly due to the high number of hand/finger injuries reported. Generally, the range for fractures was 2.6-17.7% [17-19, 23, 26-28] although three studies reported fractures making up 26-28% of the total number of injuries [12,29,43]. Inflammatory conditions were rarely reported but Hickey et al [27] found medial tibial stress syndrome to be responsible for 33.3% of all lower extremity injuries in a study of elite junior females, with patellar tendinopathy the most common knee problem (35.7%).…”

“…Sprains [18,19,26,27,29,41,42] or sprains/strains [12,17,23,28,43] are the most common type of injury suffered by young basketball players, representing between 22-65.5% of all injuries. Strains account for approximately 16% of all reported injuries (range 13.3-17.7%) [19,41].…”

“…Injury Type A percent comparison of injury types across high schools [17][18][19]41], clubs/sporting organizations [23,[25][26][27], and hospital emergency departments [12,29,42,43] is shown in table 3. Sprains [18,19,26,27,29,41,42] or sprains/strains [12,17,23,28,43] are the most common type of injury suffered by young basketball players, representing between 22-65.5% of all injuries.…”