Sports injuries: population based representative data on incidence, diagnosis, sequelae, and high risk groups

Objective: To generate national representative data on the
incidence, diagnosis, severity, and nature of medically treated
sports injuries and to identify high risk groups.Methods: The first
national health survey for the Federal Republic of Germany,
conducted in the format of a standardised, written, cross sectional
survey in the period October 1997 to March 1999, gathered data on
the incidence of accident and injury and information on social
demographics, injury related disability/time off work, and injury
location/setting. The net sample comprised 7124 people aged
18--79.Results: 3.1% of adult Germans said they sustained a sports
injury during the previous year, corresponding to an annual injury
rate of 5.6% among those engaging in regular recreational physical
activity and ranking sports injuries as the second most common type
of accident. About 62% of all sports injuries result in time taken
off work. The period of occupational disability is 14 days or less
in around two thirds of these cases. The occupational disability
rate after occupational and traffic accidents is much higher by
comparison. Dislocations, distortions, and/or torn ligaments make
up 60% of all sports injuries, followed by fractures (18%),
contusions, surface wounds, or open wounds (12%). Three out of four
sports injury casualties are male. The incidence declines
noticeably in higher age groups.Conclusions: Future injury
prevention measures should focus on the high risk group of young
male recreational athletes. The data indicate that the fear of
damage to health and injury, believed to be significant internal
psychological barriers to participation in sports, is largely
unwarranted for the female population and/or older age groups.
Sporting injuries are a marginal phenomenon among the female
population and mobile seniors actively engaged in sports.