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

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11 | February 2012
statistics, hospital discharge statistics, emergency department treatment statistics, or
household surveys on other injuries, led to the following specific recommendations.
11.1.1 Mortality statistics
The currently available mortality data at EU-level allow only for very rough and dissatisfactory
inaccurate estimates of the number of fatal sport injuries. These estimates
are based on activities which are “sport” only in a wider sense: swimming, bicycling,
mountain hiking. The reason for using such crutch is that the International Classification
of Diseases (ICD-10) is hardly fully used in Member States. In particular the
“fourth” and the “fifth digit” which specify the setting of an injury (sporting area)
and the activity related to an injury (sporting activity) are hardly recorded in Member
States, and even if they are available in some countries, data are not accessible
through the joint data bases at Eurostat and WHO. Although it is likely (according to
the few national statistics) that fatal injuries during typical types of sport are quite
rare incidences, better coverage in mortality statistics (ICD code) is highly recommended.
It is recommended to implement at least the ICD-10 activity code in the data
sets on fatalities, as it seems to be likely that this information is available at national
level (e.g. in police reports and/or death certificates).
11.1.2 Hospital discharge statistics
Technically, the situation is similar to the mortality statistics, but practically there is a
great difference: The additional burden for hospital staff and patients for collecting
additional information on setting and/or activity appears as hardly acceptable.
Moreover as there is another solution available – see the following.
11.1.3 Emergency Department Registers
In order to meet the need for useful injury surveillance for guiding prevention, by the
year 2009 thirteen EU Member States have established an injury monitoring system
in emergency departments using harmonized methods. This system, known as the
European Injury Database IDB, covers inpatients (admitted patients) as well as ambulatory
treatments, but is implemented only in more or less small national samples
of hospitals. Although this system still suffers from many shortcomings (as poor representativeness
in many countries, variations of scope, incomplete geographical coverage
of the EU), it allows for meaningful estimates of the morbidity of sport injuries
in the entire Community. Currently, a joint action of Commission and Member States
(JAMIE project) is heading for a roll-out of ED based injury surveillance by promot-