Sports Injuries: Impacts and Prevention of Sports Injuries

Abstract

The term injury, in the broadest sense, refers to the kinds of injuries that most commonly occur during exercise, workout, activities or sports.Some injuries result from accidents; others are due to poor training practices, improper equipment or insufficient warm-up and stretching.Sports injuries result from acute trauma or repetitive stress associated with athletic activities. Sports injuries can affect bones or soft tissue (ligaments, muscles, tendons). Professional dancers are increasingly recognized as performing athletes and many of the treatments and preventive measures utilized in sports medicine are now applied to dance related injuries.On a larger scale, sports injuries are becoming a public health concern in America. Prevention efforts include wearing protective devices (such as bicycle helmets and pads when skating or skateboarding), and educating both children and adults about safety. Other preventive efforts include changes in the rules of the game or sport to minimize injuries. For example, wearing goggles will be mandatory in women's lacrosse as of 2005 in order to reverse the rising rate of eye and other facial injuries in that sport. Research also continues on improving equipment. For example, thick rubber insoles canhelp prevent against repetitive injuries from running, but scientists recently observed that they can add to injuries insports such as soccer, where athletes need to make quick changes of direction. On the other hand, recent improvements in the design and construction of football helmets have been credited with a significant decline in the frequency and severity of head injuries among football players.