Sports injury pattern in school going children in Union Territory of Chandigarh

ObjectiveTo determine incidence of various types of sport injuries and other associated factors, among competitive sports playing school children of Chandigarh.DesignThis study is a survey based study, and spanned for a period of one year. School going students in age group 11–18 years of Chandigarh (Union Territory) India, who were in competitive sports, were included for this survey after taking informed consent from concerned school authorities. 33 schools consisting of 36.165 students were analysed in the study, 7230 students were found to participate in 40 different categories of sports.ResultsTotal of 246 filled questionnaires were analyzed making it an injury frequency of 3.40% among 7230 participating young athletes in 12 months study duration. Estimated incidence rate, considering hours of exposure in practice, came out to be 48.07 injuries per 1000 h of exposure in practice among 246 injured cases.40.2% of the injured children (99/246) attributed their injury to poor ground condition while other 30.5% (75/246) to faulty techniques. Rest attributed their injuries to poor fitness levels, improper use of equipment and other reasons. Of the 33 schools surveyed, 27.3% (9/33) had a doctor as health professional, 9.1% (2/33) had a physiotherapist while 66.6% of the schools (22/33) had no health care professional.ConclusionThe incidence of sports injuries in the region is high as compared to the global data. The findings has highlighted the need for a nationwide surveillance system and then taking appropriate measures for future injury prevention and appropriate management.