South Australia’s most injury prone sports revealed

New figures released by the South Australian Government show the top ten most injury prone sports in South Australia.

Introducing the findings, South Australia Health Minister Jack Snelling said approximately 8,000 South Australians were admitted into hospital with an injury from playing sports such as motorbike riding, cycling, Australian rules football or soccer in the past five years.

Minister Snelling then stated “Aussie rules football topped the list with more than 2,500 hospital admissions over the past five years.

“Aussie rules is one of the most popular sports in (the State) and is played across a wide range of age groups, so it’s not surprising that there would be more football players presenting with injuries.

“Injuries caused by cycling, including BMX, mountain and road bikes had the second highest number of hospital admissions with more than 1100 in five years.

“Motorbike riding, soccer and skateboarding made up the top five, with basketball, trail or general horseback riding, netball, cricket and rugby rounding out the top ten.

“We always encourage people to lead a healthy lifestyle and participate in physical exercise, which includes playing sport.

“However, it is important people make sure they take precautions to be as safe as possible, which includes wearing the correct protective gear, properly warming up to avoid injury and taking the time to let injuries heal before rushing back to play.”

SA Health Chief Medical Officer, Professor Paddy Phillips said while each of these sports are vastly different, the number one injury type was the same for all ten sports.

Professor Phillips stated “fractures were by far the most common injury type, making up 56% of the total hospital admissions related to these sports.

“Dislocations, sprains and strains, open wounds and injuries such as those to the head, forearm and tendons were also among the top four most common injury types.”

SA Health figures show that 8,408 people were admitted to hospital with a sports-related injury between the 2008/9 and 2012/13 financial years.

There were 2,525 admissions resulting from AFL injuries during this time frame, of which just over half were for fractures.

Other sports resulting in hospital admissions included cycling (1,110 admissions), motorcycling (1,103), soccer/football (949), skateboarding (471), basketball (470), horseriding (452) netball (436), were cricket (279) and rugby (250).

20th January 2014 - RESEARCH REVIEW SUGGESTS BENEFITS OUTWEIGH THE RISKS OF INJURY IN JUNIOR SPORT