Abstract
Sports participation in the military is important for physical fitness and building morale and camaraderie. However, injuries caused by sports are detrimental to military capability. The purpose of this study was to investigate patterns of injury from sports participation in Australian Regular Army personnel. Injury data spanning a two-year period were obtained from the Department of Defence Workplace Health, Safety, Compensation, and Reporting (WHSCAR) database. Data were extracted for the top five sporting activities causing injuries. The most common body sites, natures, and mechanisms of injuries across these five sports were then determined. Sports participation accounted for 11% (n = 1092) of reported injuries (n = 9828). Soccer presented with the greatest number of injuries (23.3%), followed by rugby union/league (22.9%), touch football (18.6%), Australian rules football (12.0%), and basketball/netball (11.9%). The ankle, knee, and shoulder were the most injured body sites (21.9%; 17.2%; 11.6% respectively) across these five sports, with soft tissue injury, dislocation, and fractures being the most common natures of injury (55.1%; 12.7%; 11.9% respectively). The most common mechanisms of injuries were contact with objects (35.1%) and falls (27.4%). The current injury rates, locations, and mechanisms are similar to historical rates suggesting little impact by injury mitigation strategies.
Highlights
Sporting participation is encouraged in defence force personnel as it is thought to have numerous benefits, including building fitness, strength, endurance, agility, teamwork, stress reduction, and “esprit de corps” [1]
The WHSCAR database provides a useful overview of the “patterns” of injuries experienced by Australian Defence Force personnel, given it is the only available source of such data, but caution should be applied in interpretation of the “rates” of injuries calculated from this database [22]
A total of 9828 injuries were reported amongst Australian Regular Army personnel over the data collection period
Summary
Sporting participation is encouraged in defence force personnel as it is thought to have numerous benefits, including building fitness, strength, endurance, agility, teamwork, stress reduction, and “esprit de corps” [1]. The famous quote, attributed to the Duke of Wellington that “the battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton” provides a historical military appreciation of these attributes and their potential military application [2] and was reported to have been used in the suggestion that Australia needed units similar to the sportsmen’s battalions of Britain during the Great War [3]. This quote was later touted following the cricket “Victory Test” played between Australia and Britain, which typified the sporting spirit that led these countries to defeat Germany and Japan in.
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