Incidence, costs, and temporal trends of sports injury-related hospitalisations in Australian children over a 10-year period: a nationwide population-based cohort study

Objectives: To quantify and describe the incidence, cost, and temporal trends of sports injury-related hospitalisations in Australian children over a 10-year period.

Design: Retrospective population-based cohort study.

Methods: This study used linked hospitalisation and mortality data of children aged ≤16 years who were hospitalised for sports-related injury in Australia from 1 July 2002 to 30 June 2012. Age-standardised incidence rates were calculated with 95% confidence intervals (CI). Negative binomial regression was used to examine change in temporal trends in incidence rates.

Results: There were 130,167 sports injury-related hospitalisations during the 10-year study period. The overall annual incidence rate was 281.0 (95%CI: 279.5, 282.6) per 100,000 population. Males and older children were more frequently hospitalised than their female and younger counterparts. The most common sports activities resulting in hospitalisation were team ball sports (43.1%) and wheeled non-motor sport (22.3%). There was no significant annual decline in the overall incidence rate during the 10-year study period (−1.05% [95%CI: −3.01%, 0.95%]). The estimated hospital treatment costs were $39.6 million per year, with an estimated mean cost per child of $3058.

Conclusions: There has been no significant decline in sports injury-related hospitalisation rates among Australian children during 2002–03 to 2011–12. This may suggest that sports injury prevention initiatives in Australia to date have been inadequate to produce population-level reduction in sports injury-related hospitalisations. It is recommended that a national injury prevention strategy to reduce the burden of sports injuries among Australian children is developed and implemented.