Abstract
Injury burden is a composite measure of injury incidence and mean severity; this
parameter has been reported as an output measure from injury surveillance
studies in rugby for over 20 years. The benefits of reporting injury burden
results have, more recently, been recognised in other sports. This wider use of
injury burden as an output measure from injury surveillance studies has,
however, highlighted misunderstandings about how to calculate, present and
interpret injury burden data. The aim of this critical review is to explain why
median severity and ordinal severity scales should not be used to calculate and
report injury burden results in injury surveillance studies. Equations are
presented to show how injury burden results should be calculated, and graphs and
tables are presented to explain the errors that are introduced when median
severity and ordinal scales of severity are used instead of mean severity. This
critical review is intended to highlight the correct procedures for calculating,
reporting and interpreting injury burden results in order to avoid incorrect
results, conclusions and injury prevention recommendations being published.
Key words
surveillance - risk - prevention
