title: Time to add a new priority target for child injury prevention? The case for an excess burden associated with sport and exercise injury: population-based study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine the population-level burden of sports injuries compared with that for road traffic injury for children aged <15 years in Victoria, Australia.
  
  
  METHODS
  Retrospective observational study.
  
  
  METHODS
  Analysis of routinely collected data relating to non-fatal hospital-treated sports injury and road traffic injury cases for children aged <15 years in Victoria, Australia, over 2004-2010, inclusive.
  
  
  METHODS
  75 413 non-fatal hospital-treated sports injury and road traffic injury cases in children aged <15 years. Data included: all Victorian public and private hospital hospitalisations, using the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Health Related Problems, 10th Revision, Australian Modification (ICD-10-AM) activity codes to identify sports-related cases and ICD-10-AM cause and location codes to identify road traffic injuries; and injury presentations to 38 Victorian public hospital emergency departments, using a combination of activity, cause and location codes.
  
  
  METHODS
  Trends in injury frequency and rate were analysed by log-linear Poisson regression and the population-level injury burden was assessed in terms of years lived with disability (YLD), hospital bed-days and direct hospital costs.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Over the 7-year period, the annual frequency of non-fatal hospital-treated sports injury increased significantly by 29% (from N=7405 to N=9923; p<0.001) but the frequency of non-fatal hospital-treated road traffic injury decreased by 26% (from N=1841 to N=1334; p<0.001). Sports injury accounted for a larger population health burden than did road traffic injury on all measures: 3-fold the number of YLDs (7324.8 vs 2453.9); 1.9-fold the number of bed-days (26 233 vs 13 886) and 2.6-fold the direct hospital costs ($A5.9 millions vs $A2.2 millions).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The significant 7-year increase in the frequency of hospital-treated sports injury and the substantially higher injury population-health burden (direct hospital costs, bed-day usage and YLD impacts) for sports injury compared with road traffic injury for children aged <15 years indicates an urgent need to prioritise sports injury prevention in this age group.
authors.affiliation: Australian Centre for Research into Injury in Sport and its Prevention (ACRISP), Federation University Australia, Ballarat, Victoria, Australia.
authors.forename: Caroline F
authors.initials: CF
authors.lastname: Finch
authors.affiliation: Australian Centre for Research into Injury in Sport and its Prevention (ACRISP), Federation University Australia, Ballarat, Victoria, Australia.
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Wong Shee
authors.affiliation: Victorian Injury Surveillance Unit (VISU), Monash Injury Research Institute (MIRI), Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia.
authors.forename: Angela
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Clapperton
mesh_terms: D000063:Accidents, Traffic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000293:Adolescent; D001265:Athletic Injuries / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000517:prevention & control*; D002648:Child; D017281:Cost of Illness; D015444:Exercise; D006292:Health Priorities / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013997:Time Factors; D014739:Victoria / Q000453:epidemiology; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology / Q000517:prevention & control
keywords: Epidemiology; Public Health; Sports Medicine