The Faculty of Sport and Exercise Medicine (FSEM) is leading the call for the creation of a National Sporting Injury Register.
The FSEM UK supports the need for a National Injury Register to cover all sports in order to identify and inform activities that may pose injury risk.
Such a register would also provide key data for governing bodies in developing and assessing the effectiveness of their injury prevention strategies including, when necessary, changes to the rules of a sport.
The current lack of comprehensive injury statistics means sports clubs and governing bodies are missing out on an opportunity to enhance their injury and risk-prevention protocols, particularly among youth sports.
Sport related hospital-treated injuries are more than five times more common than road traffic injuries for children aged 15 or younger.
Road traffic injury prevention is a well-resourced public health issue in the UK, yet sports injury identification and prevention is not. However, it should also be noted that a growing number of individual sports governing bodies and sporting leagues are currently completing high-quality peer reviewed work in this field.
Dr Roderick Jaques, President of the Faculty of Sport and Exercise Medicine comments: “There is a clear need in the UK to work towards the set-up of a National Injury Register for sport. This is essential not only for established sports, clubs and teams, but to also encourage and manage sporting and exercise practices for the general public within safe limits. The challenge is identifying how this can be done and how it can be delivered.
"The barriers to developing a National Injury Register are principally outside the influence of national governing bodies for sport, therefore we need to look towards relevant organisations, regulatory bodies, colleges, faculties and public health authorities to collaborate and create a solution."
The FSEM is already supporting and developing research strategies with key partners, such as the National Institute of Exercise and Health, to demonstrate the risks and benefits of sport and exercise to the health of the population. Funding is now needed to support this initiative.
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