Emergency Department Visits for Injuries Sustained During Sports and Recreational Activities by Patients Aged 5–24 Years, 2010–2016

Questions for Lead Author Anna Rui, Health Statistician, of “Emergency Department Visits for Injuries Sustained During Sports and Recreational Activities by Patients Aged 5–24 Years, 2010–2016.”

Q: What do you think is the most significant finding in this report?

AR: The top activities that caused emergency room (ER) visits for sports injuries by patients ages 5-24 years were football, basketball, pedal cycling, and soccer. There was wide variation by age and sex in the types of activities causing ER visits for sports injuries.

Q: Out of all of the sports, which sport or activity was found to have the largest increase in ER visits over time?

AR: We did not assess trends over time in the report.

Q: Is it accurate to say that the sports in the study are the most dangerous? Or do they have the most ER visits because they are simply the most popular?

AR: There are likely other health care utilization measures besides ER visits that others would want to look at as well, but the purpose of the report was to estimate the number of ER visits for sports injuries, and these are the sports that account for the most visits.

Q: What are some limitations of the report?

AR: The definition of sports and recreational activities relied on data processing and manual review of medical records, which could have resulted in over- or under-estimation of the sports injury ER rate. The study did not include patients who sought care in other settings or who did not seek care; thus the estimates in the report are an underestimate of all health care utilization for sports injuries.

Q: Why is this report important?

AR: Many young Americans engage in some type of sports or recreational activity each year, and sports and recreation-related injuries are a common type of injury seen in hospital ERs. It’s important to understand the types of injuries that are most commonly seen in the ER and which sports account for those injuries in order to monitor and guide injury prevention efforts. In addition, we provide updated estimates of treatments administered in the ER for sports injuries, which provides new information that can be used to monitor improvements to the quality and value of care and serve as a benchmark for future studies.