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

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11 | February 2012
ing a Minimum Data Set, which can be implemented as a matter of routine in all
emergency departments, as well as to enhance the quality of estimates of indicators.
It is recommended, that all Member States join this effort and pay special attention
on sport injuries, e.g. by publishing und using their figures for setting up prevention
programmes in the area of sport.
11.1.4 Household surveys
In particular in sports, there are many injuries not medically treated at all (but eventually
leading to sick-leaves) or treated in doctor’s offices, sometimes in highly specialized
offices as for example in Alpine countries for treating the high number of
skiing injuries during the winter season. Although the admission rate of sport injuries
is less than 10% these injuries are not necessarily minor and shall be depicted by
estimates from household surveys, e.g. the European Health Interview System.
11.1.5 Indicators on direct health costs
The EUROCOST study has developed a relatively easily applicable method for deriving
estimates of the direct costs of medical treatments in hospitals. Although this
methodology underestimates the total economic burden, it has the important advantage,
that it can be applied on estimates for fatalities and ED treatments. Costs of
sick-leaves, disability annuities, rehabilitation costs etc. are not included, but the EU-
ROCOST indicator can be derived for various sports, age groups, years and countries
without imposing huge efforts. Therefore it is recommended that the Commission
publishes regularly, e.g. bi-annually the underlying cost factors in order to facilitate
the use of the method, and Member States are invited to apply this method when
reporting on the burden of injury, also of sport injury.
11.1.6 Indicators on disabilities
The INTEGRIS study has developed a relatively easily applicable method for deriving
indicators for temporary and long-term disabilities. It provides a promising opportunity
to estimate the probability of long-term consequences, which mean – beside
fatalities – most human suffering and highest costs for the national health and
welfare systems. Therefore it is recommended that this method is further elaborated
and tested and included into national as well as EU-level reports on injuries.