Sport Injuries During Duty Sport - a risk Assessment

Daily physical activity ist a predictive factor for cardio-vascular disease and for obesity. In military, police and firefighter service duty sport is used to increase and to keep a work specifical physical fitness. Till today no study data with direct data acquisition exists for a risk assessment of the injury rates in duty sport. In this one-year study in a German Armed Forces armoured brigade with 22 companies, every sport-related injury on duty and the following sick days were recorced. Apart from the sport type, the duration of the athletic activity and the number of soldiers that took part in it were monitored. 275 sport injuries were recorded. Soccer was the sport with the highest risk of injuries. Team sports proved to be more dangerous than individual physical activity. The author has demonstrated a reduction of the total injury rate by 39%, of sick days by 50%, and of the days with partial unfitness for duty by 42% when team sports are reduced in favour to other physical activities