The causes of injuries sustained at fitness facilities presenting to Victorian emergency departments - identifying the main culprits
- Authors: Gray, Shannon , Finch, Caroline
- Date: 2015
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Injury Epidemiology Vol. 2, no. 1 (2015), p. 1-8
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- Description: BACKGROUND: Fitness facilities provide an avenue to engage in physical activity, which is widely encouraged to improve health. However, there is risk of injury. This study aimed to identify the specific causes of injuries sustained at fitness facilities and the activity being participated in, to aid in the development of injury prevention strategies. METHODS: Analysis of routinely collected emergency department case-series data were obtained from July 1999 to June 2013. Fitness activity-related injury cases were identified from narratives of injury events, with narrative information recoded into cause of injury and activity at time of injury categories. Recoded data were then analysed. RESULTS: Overall, 2,873 cases were identified that specified the exact cause of injury associated with injuries that occurred at fitness facilities. Injuries due to overexertion were most common overall (36.2% of all cases), as well as the main cause of injuries related to general free weight activities (52.6% of this activity) and group exercise classes (35.9%). Crush injuries due to falling weights were common for all free weight activities. Falls and awkward landings were common causes of injuries during group exercise classes (28.5% and 25.8%, respectively). Trips and falls were common throughout facilities, as well as from cardiovascular equipment more specifically. CONCLUSIONS: Detailed information on the causes of injuries allows the development of injury prevention strategies for fitness facilities and fitness activities. Facilities should implement risk management strategies to reduce the risk of injuries in their clientele, based on the identified major causes of injury in this study.
Controlled ecological evaluation of an implemented exercise-training programme to prevent lower limb injuries in sport : Population-level trends in hospital-treated injuries
- Authors: Finch, Caroline , Gray, Shannon , Akram, Muhammad , Donaldson, Alex , Lloyd, David , Cook, Jill
- Date: 2019
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: British Journal of Sports Medicine Vol. 53, no. 8 (2019), p. 487-492
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- Description: Objective Exercise-training programmes have reduced lower limb injuries in trials, but their population-level effectiveness has not been reported in implementation trials. This study aimed to demonstrate that routinely collected hospital data can be used to evaluate population-level programme effectiveness. Method A controlled ecological design was used to evaluate the effect of FootyFirst, an exercise-training programme, on the number of hospital-treated lower limb injuries sustained by males aged 16-50 years while participating in community-level Australian Football. FootyFirst was implemented with a € support' (FootyFirst+S) or a € without support' (FootyFirst+NS) in different geographic regions of Victoria, Australia: 22 clubs in region 1: FootyFirst+S in 2012/2013; 25 clubs in region 2: FootyFirst+NS in 2012/2013; 31 clubs region 3: control in 2012, FootyFirst+S in 2013. Interrupted time-series analysis compared injury counts across regions and against trends in the rest of Victoria. Results After 1 year of FootyFirst+S, there was a non-statistically significant decline in the number of lower limb injuries in region 1 (2012) and region 3 (2013); this was not maintained after 2 years in region 1. Compared with before FootyFirst in 2006-2011, injury count changes at the end of 2013 were: region 1: 20.0% reduction (after 2 years support); region 2: 21.5% increase (after 2 years without support); region 3: 21.8% increase (after first year no programme, second year programme with support); rest of Victoria: 12.6% increase. Conclusion Ecological analyses using routinely collected hospital data show promise as the basis of population-level programme evaluation. The implementation and sustainability of sports injury prevention programmes at the population-level remains challenging.