European soccer injuries A prospective epidemiologic and socioeconomic study

In 1 year, 715 patients with soccer injuries were regis-tered and treated in the emergency department of Randers City Hospital. We did a prospective study of these patients using a questionnaire to determine the most common locations, types, mechanisms, and treat-ments of injury. Financial costs for society and the individual were also examined. Forty-nine percent of the injuries were to the joints; sprains and contusions were the most common types of injury, accounting for 46 % and 25%, respectively. The majority of patients (64 % of the men and 58 % of the women) were injured during physical contact with another player. Most (63%) of the patients were treated in the emergency department and then released. Thirty-one percent had to be absent from work, but only 8% of the patients had a loss of income because of their injury. The average amount of work time lost was 5 days. Soccer is considered by many to be the most popular game all over the world and is played by at least 40 million people.16 Because of the vast number of soccer injuries seen in emergency departments, the traumatology and epide-miology of these injuries has become the object of major medical interest.4-9,~3 Therefore, we undertook a prospective investigation to describe these injuries, as well as their social and economic consequences. These problems have been addressed by other authors,’,&dquo; but most studies of soccer injuries have been based on specialized sports injury clinics or soccer clubs.1,6,lO,ll,14,17 The strength of this study is that it is population-based