THE SEVERITY OF SPORTS INJURIES

In order to assess the extent of the sports injury problem, it is nece ssary to identify both the incidence and severity of sports injuries. In the literature, the severity of sports injuries is usually describe d on the basis of 6 criteria: (i) nature of sports injury; (ii) durati on and nature of treatment: (iii) sporting time lost: (iv) ii working time Lost; (v) permanent damage; and (vi) monetary cost. It is importa nt to include information on the severity of injuries in a sports inju ry registration system. This kind of information will help to set targ ets for preventive strategies. The more severe the injuries sustained, the higher the priority will be to prevent these injuries regardless of the injury incidence. When assessing injury severity one should tak e into account that, in order to enhance the comparability of research data, uniform definitions are also important in this area of sports i njury surveillance. This paper briefly discusses the 6 criteria used t o describe the severity of sports injuries.