Background Little is known about the prevalence proportion of sports injuries in Denmark. In addition, the beliefs amongst athletes regarding injury-preventive training regimes and the association with injury risk are lacking.

Objective To examine the prevalence proportion of injured athletes in a population-based sample and to describe beliefs regarding their ability to prevent injuries through proper training.

Design Population-based sample interviews.

Setting Denmark, March 2016.

Participants A random sample of 1059 persons from the Danish population above 18 years.

Assessment of Risk Factors During the interview, the following questions were asked: Are you sports active? Have you sustained any sports-related injury within the past 3 years that prevented sports activity for a shorter or longer period? Do you know how to train properly to prevent injury? In addition, assessment of demographics included: age, sex, social class, income, education, number of children, county, union member and unemployment fund.

Main measurements Sports active, injury within 3 years and prevention knowledge.

Results The prevalence proportion of sports active was 60.9% [95% CI: 57.9–63.9]. A majority (61.8% [95% CI: 58.3–65.2]) reported to be aware of proper injury-preventive training, whereas 25.4% [95% CI: 22.0–28.9] sustained an injury within 3 years. Sports activity increased with education (OR=1.17 [95% CI: 1.1–1.23], P=0.0001). Risk of injury decreased with increasing age (OR=0.64 [95% CI: 0.54–0.74], P<0.0001) and female sex (OR=1.61 [95% CI: 1.11–2.35], P=0.013). Knowledge of injury prevention increased with age (OR=1.15 [95% CI: 1.02–1.3], P=0.022) and female sex (OR=1.35 [95% CI: 1.13–1.51], P=0.004). No association of preventive training on injury (OR=1.07 [95% CI: 0.71–1.67])

Conclusions The prevalence proportion of injuries seems to be a public-health issue. A majority believe they know how to train properly to prevent injuries. However, awareness of preventive training was not associated with decreased injury risk.