Sports injury

Sports injuries are injuries that incur recreational and competitive athletes in their sport.

The most common injuries are bruises and sprains ( 35.5 %). This is followed by fractures and dislocations ( 28.4 %), and injuries of tendons, ligaments and muscles (22.5%). Some sports involve certain risks.

We distinguish between endogenous injuries of athletes incurs without any external influence (for example, due to faulty training or over-exertion in competition) and exogenous injuries that are added to the athlete by the enemy.

The overall picture of sports injuries differs significantly from that of the injuries, such as those found in traffic or accidents at work. 20 % of all accidents in Germany (as of xxxx) sports accidents. With the treatment of chronic pain ( eg tennis elbow ) and the follow-up treatment of severe injuries (eg Achilles tendon ) is concerned, the sports medicine.

A helmet and protective clothing can greatly reduce the risk of injury.

Statistical

The Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health collects and publishes, among other data on accidental injuries in home and leisure. This will be based on estimates or extrapolations of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI ) on survey data ( GEDA and KiGGS ).

Their statistics show for 2011, inter alia, following figures for Germany from:

3.1 million leisure accidents, of which 7,796 fatal accidents ( of a total of 20,406 fatal accidents - that's 38.2 percent).

Countermeasures

Prevention of the exercise is to adapt the general physical condition. Gymnastic exercises, the so-called warm-up before training and competition reduce the risk of injury. In numerous sports appropriate equipment is of great importance, for example, when rollerblading crash protectors. With an injury to the extremities according to the RICE scheme be moved: Rest, Ice ( cooling), compression (for example, pressure bandage ), elevation.

Societal costs

It was and will always be brought up for discussion to intercept the costs arising due to sports injuries through additional payments or additional insurance of athletes (see also pays principle ). For example ( day ticket, etc.) could in any ski pass, which buys a skier, a levy / insurance be included for these costs.