Injuries and Statistics

According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission Report, sports injuries in baby boomers increased by 31 percent from 1991 to 1998. About 276,000 emergency room cases were for people aged 35-54 in 1991. In 1998, that number skyrocketed to 365,000. In 2006, the NEISS (National Electronic Injury Surveillance System) reported over half a million injuries associated with basketball alone.

Baby boomers suffered over 1 million sports related injuries, which ended up costing $18.7 billion in medical costs in 1998.

Basketball is the sport with the highest number of injuries. I didn't realize there weren't hat many injuries associated basketball. It makes sense though, between the colliding and the jumping involved with basketball, there is a high possibility of injury. One might think that football and lacrosse and other contact sports would be right up there. They are, but you have to remember when thinking about this issue, that with lacrosse, football, etc. the players are wearing pads. In basketball, they aren't.

I've looked, but I couldn't find any statistics about rugby. On this website rugby is combined with lacrosse, and they had relatively few injuries, but I think that that would be a sport that is pretty high as well. There is all of the intense contact of soccer and football, all the collisions, but no padding like in football. I guess I'll just always wonder.

NEISS put out predictions based on 2006 data. Here is what they said

bold=sport
italics=number of projected injuries

Basketball-529,837 These injuries are mainly cut hands, sprained ankles, broken legs, eye and forehead injuries
Bicycling-490,434 These injuries are mainly feet caught in spokes, head injuries from falls, slipping while carrying bicycles, collisions with cars
Football-460,210 These injuries are mainly fractured wrists, chipped teeth, neck strains, head lacerations, dislocated hips and jammed fingers
ATV's, Mopeds, Minibikes-257,123 Riders of ATV's were injured when they thrown. Along with this there were also fractured wrists, dislocated hands, shoulder sprains, head cuts and lumbar strains
Baseball, Softball-274,867 These injuries were mainly head injuries from bats and balls or ankle injuries from running bases or sliding into them
Exercise, Exercise Equipment-269,249 These injuries were mainly twisted ankles and cut chins from tripping on treadmills. Head injuries from falling backward from exercise balls, ankle sprains from jumping rope
Soccer-196,544 This injuries were mainly twisted ankles or knees after falls, fractured arms during games
Swimming-164,607 The injuries were mainly head injuries from hitting the bottom of pools, and leg injuries from accidentally falling into pools
Skiing, Snowboarding-96,119 These injuries were mainly head injuries from falling, cut legs and faces, sprained knees or shoulders
Lacrosse, Rugby-85,580 These injuries were mainly head and facial cuts from getting hit by balls and sticks, injured ankles from falls

This is a comparison of injuries associated with 16 popular sports between 1991 and 1998.















http://www.scientificpsychic.com/fitness/sport_injuries.html