title: Injuries due to school sports accidents in 4 to 13-yr.-old children.
abstract: 505 kindergarten and primary school children from 4 to 13 years of age were treated for school sports injuries during the period 1990-1997. The incidence of injuries increased statistically significantly from .5 per 1,000 children 4- to 5-yr.-old to 4.8 injured children per 1,000 in 12- to 13-yr.-old. 59% of the injuries involved upper extremities; 35% of these were in the wrist region. 33.5% of the injuries were of the lower extremities, with 50% being of the feet and 36.4% of the ankle. Accidental falls were the main situation (53%) in which school sport accidents occurred. Nearly 65% of these accidental falls occurred at the ground level; the remaining accidents (35%) occurred when the child was working on an apparatus, e.g., parallel bars, balancing beam, side horse. The 4- to 5-yr.-old children were the most vulnerable to accidental fall (67%). A statistically significant increase in injuries in ball sports was observed from 4- to 5-yr.-olds (0%) to the 12- to 13-yr.-olds (28%).
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, University Hospital Groningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kingma
authors.forename: H J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Ten Duis
mesh_terms: D000059:Accidents / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000293:Adolescent; D001265:Athletic Injuries / Q000453:epidemiology*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D012572:School Health Services