Burden of Sport Injuries in the European Union - Safety in Sports

6 Morbidity
6.1 The European Injury Database EU IDB
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6 | February 2012
The analysis of non-fatal sport injuries is based on hospital data gathered and made
available through the EU Injury Database (EU IDB), as there is no other suitable
source at EU level. Neither Eurostat nor WHO data on hospital discharges reveal
sport injuries. National hospital statistics usually are based on simplified ICD-coding
which makes it impossible to identify sport injuries, not even for rough estimates as
possible for fatal injuries. Segui-Gomez et al. (2008) explored extensively the usability
of national hospital statistics for analysing injuries, created a specific database, and
demonstrated the usability of hospital discharge data for calculating various general
burden indicators, but revealed also, that these data cannot be used for deriving valid
figures on non-fatal sport injuries at EU level.
As there is a strong need for better information about injuries, in particular about
external circumstances as activities, settings, and involved products, the EU IDB has
been set up as complementary injury surveillance system. Information on external
causes and circumstances is needed for developing prevention measures, for setting
priorities in injury prevention, and for guiding and controlling prevention programmes.
For workplace related injuries and road crashes such surveillance systems
has been set up already for a long time, but not for other injuries. Considering that
home, leisure and sport injuries outnumber work and road accidents by far, it may
surprise that the EU IDB data collection is still not implemented in all member states
(Kisser et al. 2010). Currently, a new joint action of the Commission and member
states has been set up for achieving the roll-out to the remaining countries and for
establishing comparable national indicators for home, leisure, sport and school injuries
for all member states (Eurosafe 2012a).
The EU IDB was established and funded by the European Commission Directorate
General for Health and Consumer Protection in 1999 to host data collected by the
Member States on injury hospitalisations and emergency visits for unintentional injuries
in the home and leisure environments. The EU IDB was formerly called the European
Home and Leisure Accidents Surveillance System (EHLASS), as it originally
was restricted to unintentional injuries at home and during leisure time (Danish Institute
of Public Health & Psytel 2002). Meanwhile the system has been expanded to
all injuries and covers today also road traffic, work related injuries, and injuries due
to interpersonal violence and self-harm (Consumer Safety Institute 2005). It comprises
treatments in accident and emergency departments (ambulatory treatments as