Abstract
The purpose of this study was to get reliable insight into injury risk in various
commuting and lifestyle activities, as well as recreational and competitive sports.
A cohort of 3 657 persons was randomly selected from the 15- to 74-year-old Finnish
population. Ninety-two percent (n = 3 363) of the subjects accepted to participate
the one-year follow-up, record all their physical activities that lasted 15 min or
more, and register all acute and overuse injuries that occurred during these activities.
To collect the information, the study subjects were interviewed by phone by the trained
personnel of the Statistics Finland three times in four-month intervals. The individual
injury risk per exposure time was relatively low, ranging from 0.19 to 1.5 per 1 000
hours of participation, in commuting and lifestyle activities including walking and
cycling to work, gardening, home repair, hunting and fishing, and, in sports such
as golf, dancing, swimming, walking, and rowing. The risk was clearly higher in squash,
orienteering, and contact and team sports, such as judo, wrestling, karate, rinkball,
floorball, basketball, soccer, ice hockey, volleyball, and Finnish baseball ranging
from 6.6 to 18.3 per 1 000 hours of participation. However, the highest absolute number
of injuries occurred in low-risk activities, such as gardening, walking, home-repair,
and cycling, because they are performed so often. In conclusion, individual injury
risk per exposure hours is relatively low in commuting and lifestyle activities compared
to many recreational and competitive sports. However, at a population level, these
low-to-moderate intensity activities are widely practised producing a rather high
absolute number of injuries, and thus, preventive efforts are needed in these activities,
too.
Key words
Epidemiology - exposure time - individual injury risk - leisure-time injury - sports
injury - injury prevention
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J. Parkkari, MD, Ph D
Tampere Research Center of Sport Medicine · UKK Institute
P.O. Box 30 · 33501 Tampere · Finland
Phone: +358-3-282-9111
Fax: +358-3-282-9200
Email: jari.parkkari@uta.fi
