Sports injuries increase because of Olympics excitement

As the UK is in the grip of Olympic fever and London prepares to host the greatest show on earth, it seems to be having an unfortunate side effect.  

According to recent figures, hospital A&E departments are seeing a significant increase in the number of patients complaining of sporting injuries.

Complaints of such injuries – including sprains, strains and broken bones – have increased by 15 percent from last year.

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The data, released by the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC), shows that in the 12 months ending February 2012, hospitals treated 388,500 sporting injuries.

That is compared to 338,200 the previous year.

Men aged between 10 and 29 accounted for approximately 50 percent of the sporting injuries seen in A&E departments.

Fifty percent of all patients with an injury that resulted from sporting activity needed an X-ray, and 12 percent had to be treated for a fracture.

It appeared the weekend was the time when most of the sports injuries occurred, and the most admissions were noted on Saturday afternoons between 15:00 and 17:00, and on Sunday mornings between 11:00 and 16:00.

The number of A&E visits because of sporting injuries actually increased more than accident and emergency admissions on the whole, which rose by 7 percent to 16.9 million overall.

Commenting on the figures, Tim Straughan, chief executive of HSCIC, said: “Sport seems to be catching the public imagination at the moment with the Olympics just around the corner.

"While our hospital figures do not of course represent levels of sports participation over time, they do give an insight into the amount of injuries ending up in A&E through sport.

“The report shows that there has been a considerable rise in such injuries being treated by A&E staff, with cases up by about 15 percent in a year.”

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