Original paper
Counting organised sport injury cases: Evidence of incomplete capture from routine hospital collections

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Abstract

Organised sports are a popular form of physical activity, but unfortunately, participation can result in injury. Despite this, there have been surprisingly few studies that have reported the population rate of sports injury. Data from the 2005 New South Wales (NSW, Australia) Population Health Survey were analysed to describe self-reported injury experiences during participation in organised sports activities and the source of treatment for such injuries during a 12-month period in a population representative sample of adults aged 16+ years. At interview, 2414 respondents stated that they had participated in organised sport in the previous 12 months and just under one-third (30.9%) reported that they had been injured during this participation. Half of all injuries required formal treatment from a health or medical practitioner. Physiotherapists most commonly provided treatment for sports injury (26.6% of cases) followed by general practitioners (15.6%). Only 2.8% of all injured sports participants were admitted to hospital for their injury and a further 6.1% received treatment in an emergency department. This corresponds to at most only 8.9% of all treated sports injuries receiving treatment in a hospital setting. Population-based estimates of the rate and burden of sports injuries that rely solely on routine hospital data collections are likely to grossly underestimate the size of the problem, as very few cases are treated in a hospital setting.

Introduction

Injuries are a well recognised possible adverse consequence of participation in sport and other physical activities,1 yet little is known about the population rate of such injuries in Australia,2 and indeed in most other countries. This is problematic because descriptive epidemiological information about the occurrence of sports injuries is needed for policy development, setting prevention priorities and targets, and for identifying suitable prevention and control measures.

Routine health sector data collections have been used to describe the rate and patterns of sports injuries, with most data relating to emergency department presentations or injury hospitalisations.3, 4, 5, 6 In New South Wales (NSW) Australia, for example, sports injuries have been estimated to account for between 13.9% and 38.3% of all hospitalised injury.7 Whilst these routine hospital-based data collections do provide a wealth of information about the nature of acute severe injuries, they are limited because only a proportion of sports injuries are treated in these settings.8, 9 For instance, in a geographically defined region in Australia, Finch et al.9 estimated that for every hospital admission for a sport-related injury, there were 10.6 emergency department visits and 11.7 general practitioner consultations. As routine hospital data collections do not identify all sports injuries, a number of recent studies have employed population-based surveys to determine the frequency of sport-related injuries.9, 10, 11, 12 These studies have all found sports injuries to be more common in males, younger people and in people who frequently participate in sport.9, 10, 11, 12

Whilst there is accumulating information about the frequency of sports injuries in relation to participation, there has been very few examinations of the proportion of individuals reporting a sports injury in a population-based sample to quantify the level of case-capture of these injuries through routine hospital-based data collections.6, 8, 9 This is largely because health surveys have not obtained information about the sources of treatment for reported injuries. This paper takes advantage of recent data from the NSW Population Health Survey to describe the frequency of self-reported injury and the source of injury treatment of individuals aged 16+ years participating in organised sport.

Section snippets

Methods

The NSW Population Health Survey is a continuous annual survey, undertaken by the NSW Department of Health. In 2005 it surveyed a representative sample of 13,701 adults (aged 16+ years) across NSW Australia about their health status. A two-stage sampling process was used, with the sample stratified by NSW Area Health Service (AHS). Within each AHS, households were randomly selected using a computer-generated list of telephone numbers and postal addresses in the electronic phone book. Selected

Results

A total of 2414 respondents (25.4% of the total; 95% CI: 24.2–26.6) stated that they had participated in organised sport in the previous 12 months. Males were significantly more likely to report participation than females (30.2% versus 20.7%, p < 0.001) (Fig. 1). Participation decreased with age, especially between the 16–24 and 25–34 years age groups. On average, females played sport for fewer hours per week (4.0, 95% CI: 3.5–4.5) than males (5.3, 95% CI: 4.7–6.0).

Just under one-third of all

Discussion

Developing and evaluating sports safety policies and injury prevention initiatives needs to be informed by high-quality, relevant data that contain compelling arguments about the public health burden of health conditions15 and detailed information about causal factors.16 Most countries and regions do not currently conduct routine reporting of population-level sport-related injury rate trends over time, whether for organised sport or for all sport and recreational activities.

This analysis of a

Practical implications

  • Just under one-third of organised sport participants report sustaining an injury related to that participation over a 12-month period.

  • Many injuries resulting from organised sport do not require treatment from a health professional, with fewer than 9% of all cases requiring treatment at an emergency department or admission to hospital.

  • Population-based sports injury surveillance systems relying solely on hospital-based data collections will grossly underestimate the incidence of sports injuries

Acknowledgements

This study was funded by the NSW Sport Injuries Committee (NSWSIC) under its Research and Injury Prevention Scheme. Dr R. Mitchell was supported by the NSW Injury Risk Management Research Centre (IRMRC) core funding, which is provided by the NSW Department of Health, the NSW Roads and Traffic Authority, and the NSW Motor Accidents Authority. Prof C. Finch was supported by an NHMRC Principal Research Fellowship. Dr S. Boufous was supported by the IRMRC core funding and an NHMRC Postdoctoral

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