Sports members' participation in assessment of incidence rate of injuries in five sports from records of hospital-based clinical treatment

This study is about the incidence rate of sports injuries in five different types of sports, gymnastics, soccer, volleyball, hockey, and basketball, for which 5,154 patients were admitted to the Emergency Unit of the Groningen University Hospital during the period 1990 through 1994. Incidence rate had been computed by membership participation. Basketball had the highest incidence rate (231 injured persons per 10,000 participants), followed by hockey (158 injured persons per 10,000 participants). The highest mean Injury Severity Score, 2.39, was found for gymnastics which had the lowest incidence rate (7 injured persons per 10,000 participants). Gymnastics had the highest percentage (12%) clinically treated patients, whereas basketball had the smallest percentage (2%) of clinically treated patients. The most frequent type of injury was distorsion, except for hockey, in which contusion had the highest percentage of occurrence. For all five types of sports, the majority (about 90%) of the injuries were observed at either the lower or at the upper extremities.