Sporting injuries, seasonal trend and impact on rural Australian hospitals: Implications and recommendations

To determine the prevalence of sporting injuries in a regional Australian setting and readiness of the rural health systems to combat the overall impact.

Five years of data between 2008 and 2012 from the Victorian Emergency Minimal Dataset showing sports injuries presenting to Goulburn Valley Base Hospital Emergency Department (ED) were analysed.

Prevalence of overall sporting injuries including different types and location of injury in the body, seasonal variation for emergency presentation, mechanism of injury and hospital admissions.

We observed a total of 4537 Emergency presentations and 235 hospitalisations between 2008 and 2012 with sporting injuries. About 78% of injuries presented in the winter sporting months; the rate of injury was higher in the month of 'May' across the most data reviewing years. Also, there was a higher proportion of hospital admissions recorded in winter sporting months. We reported that those who played sports in winter were significantly younger than those in summer (P < 0.05). Sprains and strains due to different sporting activities were the commonest cause of ED presentations, while falls and collisions were the mostly reported mechanism for sporting injuries.

It might be extrapolated from the data that within a regional setting, there is a need to optimise emergency departments and hospital bed availability with emphasis on orthopaedic involvements during the winter sporting months. Many of these sports injuries are preventable and community risk reduction strategies should be applied to reduce the burden to the regional hospitals.