IS PREVENTION OF SPORTS INJURIES A REALISTIC GOAL - A 4-YEAR PROSPECTIVE INVESTIGATION OF SPORTS INJURIES AMONG PHYSICAL-EDUCATION STUDENTS

To assess the reliability of injury registration and to determine the incidence of injury in intramural (program of the institution) and ext ramural (leisure time) sports activities, we prospectively recorded in formation on sports injuries for 4 years in a group of 136 physical ed ucation students. Registration forms were completed every 3 weeks, and data on medical consultations were recorded. During the last year, we asked 59 students to recall all injuries sustained to establish the r eliability of retrospective injury registration. In the prospective st udy, 525 sports injuries were recorded: 58% during intramural activiti es and 42% during extramural. The incident rate per 1000 hours of intr amural activities (1.26) was significantly lower than that for extramu ral activities (1.77). A gradual decline in response rate from 98.4% t he 1st year to 87.7% in the final year indicated a decreasing complian ce during the study period. Eighteen percent of all injuries with reco rded medical consultations were not reported by the students. At the r etrospective injury registration in the final year of the study, stude nts had forgotten 54% of the recorded injuries and 50 injuries (20% of all recorded injuries) were mentioned that had not been recorded duri ng the previous years. We conclude that, even in a well-supervised pop ulation, prospective injury registration is not complete, and the reli ability of retrospective injury registration is even poorer.