The Sports Injury data collections categories explored in this data dictionary include: Administration Items This data item characterises the person providing the injury details on the data collection form. It is not the setting of the data collection. Typically, but not always, this will be the person providing the initial management, treatment or assessment of the injury, e.g. emergency department staff, sports trainer etc. Demographics The elements collected for demographics include age at time of injury, the sex and gender of the person as injury risk appears to differ between males and females, and the area of usual residence. Place of Injury Occurrence This provides a further breakdown of ‘recreation/fitness area’ and ‘sports or athletic area’ area into practical classifications of where people are participating. The responsibility for the provision of a safe environment can lie with local, state and federal governments, and private facility owners. Policies directed at providing safe environments will need to be developed in conjunction with these facility providers. The additional classifications of sport and recreation places will also provide information on levels of participant supervision. A surfer at an unpatrolled beach will have minimal supervision, whereas an indoor cricket game will be well supervised. It will be easier to implement prevention strategies in a well supervised place of activity. Activity when Injured This category allows for formal club sport to be differentiated from social sport, recreation, fitness activities and informal play. This information allows identification of the organisation or individual who is responsible for the safe conduct of the activity, which will help to target the most appropriate injury prevention strategy. Major Injury Factors Injury factors are broken into types of objects, substances and environment factors involved in the occurrence of injury. Mechanism Of Injury This element describes the way in which the injury was sustained i.e. what hurt the person. For example, if a player is tackled and collides with the knee of another player with their head, it is the collision with the knee that is the injury mechanism, not the tackle. Body Region Injured This element describes the site of injury on the body. Nature of Injury - Pathology The most common sports injury pathologies. Treatment Factors Treatment factors are included in the dictionary as injury reporting is often conducted at treatment settings. Treatment Treatment information will also provide details to analyse the cost of injury, the severity of the injury and the services required to provide sports medicine coverage for events. Injury surveillance is the ongoing systematic collection, analysis and interpretation of health data needed to plan, implement and evaluate public health programs (Graitcer et al., 1987). Injury surveillance can provide the information necessary for determining priorities and targets for prevention activities by specific sports, organisations, or groups of participants (Finch, 1997). Surveillance data can sometimes be used to evaluate the effectiveness of current activities or be used to trial new policies on rules or protective equipment. Barriers towards collecting sports injury data by clubs and organisation include the lack of clear guidance about what information to collect and how it should be done. A standardised data collection methodology, including a simple to use data collection form, was identified as a key requirement by sporting clubs and organisations (Finch et al., 1995). The sporting organisation or researcher may customise a data collection form to suit their needs, but a sporting club may choose to use the sport specific forms. The dictionary is prescriptive in the use of data categories and options within those categories. This is necessary if the advantages of comparability and consistency are to be gained. Users are, of course, free to design forms and data systems that meet their needs, and to extend the items and classification in the Dictionary, |