A twelve month study of sports injuries in one Irish School

Abstract

A literature review suggested that both acute and overuse injuries were common in body contact sports. This hypothesis was tested on a group of 266 Irish adolescents in an investigation that examined the incidence of injury amongst these individuals over a twelve month period. The mean age of the subjects was:- males 14.3 ± 0.85 years and females 14.1 ± 0.90 years. The responses of the subjects to a questionnaire on their sporting involvement, training and sports injuries were analysed. A total of 230 injuries were incurred by the subjects during the twelve month period: 181 of these were to males. However, the number of injuries per hour of participation was similar in the two sexes. Subjects involved in body contact sports incurred the highest number of overuse injuries. The injury rate per 10,000 hours of participation was highest in badminton (70.85 injuries per 10,000 hours), gymnastics (68.18), rugby (59.77) and basketball (56.22). The rate of overuse injuries was high in swimming, badminton and athletics. The most common injuries were ankle sprain and overuse injuries of the knee and thigh. Recurrence of old injuries was found to be common. The results of the study suggests that injury prevention programmes should be targeted to a wider range of sports, to females as well as to males, and that rehabilitation programmes need to be improved.