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Injury incidence in a sports school during a 3-year follow-up

  • Sports Medicine
  • Published:
Knee Surgery, Sports Traumatology, Arthroscopy Aims and scope

Abstract

Purpose

This study prospectively analysed sports injury incidence over 3 seasons in a regional sports school within an injury surveillance project, involving 372 athletes (12–19 years) from 16 different disciplines.

Methods

A personal sports diary was used to record all sporting activities daily for every athlete. Injuries (time-loss definition) were registered via a standardized questionnaire.

Results

Sports injury incidence (injuries/1,000 h) evolved from 3.9 in the first year to 4.8 in the second (p < 0.01) and down to 2.8 in the third (p < 0.001, compared to the preceding periods). Significant decreases of injury incidence in the third year were also observed when classifying injuries as traumatic or overuse, and as new or recurrent. The proportion of recurrent injuries was lower in the third period (11 %) when compared to the first (19.5 %, p < 0.05) and the second one (26.3 %, p < 0.05). Injury incidence was lowest during the third period for all severity categories. The same was found when considering injuries within racket, team and individual sports.

Conclusions

Implementing an injury surveillance system in this setting was associated with a lower injury incidence in the third observation period. This project may have influenced stakeholders’ awareness and attitude towards the sports injury problematic.

Level of evidence

Prospective cohort study with ≤80 % follow-up, Level II.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Hélène Agostinis and Thierry Windal for their invaluable assistance with data collection. The present study was financially supported by the National Research Fund, Luxembourg (AFR Laurent Malisoux: ref.1189878), the Luxembourgish Ministry of Sport, and the Comité Olympique et Sportif Luxembourgeois.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Correspondence to Laurent Malisoux.

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Malisoux, L., Frisch, A., Urhausen, A. et al. Injury incidence in a sports school during a 3-year follow-up. Knee Surg Sports Traumatol Arthrosc 21, 2895–2900 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00167-012-2185-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00167-012-2185-1

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