[Do boys suffer injury more often than girls in sport?]. / Verletzen sich Jungen beim Sport häufiger und anders als Mädchen?

Representative data for Germany show that each year 7.7% (95% CI: 7.0-8.6%) of all children and adolescents suffer injuries in sport. The reasons are mainly collisions and falls. The most frequent consequences were injuries to the muscle-tendon apparatus and fractures. There were no significant differences, except for a few exceptions, between the genders for the relative risk of injury and regarding the injury pattern (cause, medical diagnosis, degree of severity).

Risk groups for sports injuries among adolescents--representative German national data.

BACKGROUND: Physical activity during childhood and adolescence is of major importance with regard to an individual's engagement with sports in later life. Apart from the physical trauma, sports injuries often have negative effects on the motivation to remain physically active. This study evaluates data to gain detailed knowledge on 1-year incidence and risk groups with the aim of providing information for the development of preventive measures. METHODS: Our data analysis is based on a net sample from a national study in Germany including 7697 children and adolescents aged 11 to 17 years. Within the statistical analyses, we developed weighting factors and calculated group differences as well as regression models for sports injury incidence. RESULTS: A total of 7.7% of the children and adolescents reported a sport injury during the last 12 months. Bivariate analyses showed significant associations between sports injuries and several social and lifestyle-related covariates. After adjustment for participation in leisure time physical activity, age, non-migrant status and residence in a large city remained positively associated with the incidence of sports injuries. CONCLUSIONS: In comparison with other results for developed countries, the incidence seems rather high. It remains to be clarified whether this is because of our use of more accurate population-based data. The results suggest that while developing preventive measures, the interaction between preferences for high-risk sports and physical as well as psychological development has to be considered.