Are Australians dying for their sport & leisure?

06 October 2006

More than one Australian per week is dying in the pursuit of sports and leisure activities, according to UNSW research.

Prepared by the NSW Risk Management Research Centre at UNSW, the research report profiles the number of hospital admissions and fatalities in NSW caused by participation in sport and leisure activities.

During the three-year period 2000 – 2002, there were 167 sport/leisure-related deaths in NSW, representing more than one fatality per week. 132 deaths occurred during leisure activities while 35 deaths occurred among people playing sport.

The sport/leisure death rate for males was nearly four times higher than among females. Those aged 15-24 years had the highest age-specific rate of death in sport, and those aged over 35 years had the highest age-specific rate of death in leisure activities.

The four most common causes/mechanisms of deaths related to sport/leisure included drowning, falls, transport accidents, struck by and struck against incidents. Collectively, these accounted for 88 per cent of all leisure deaths and 100 per cent of all sport deaths.

Water-based and motorcycling-related sports had the highest rates of death and serious injury. Drowning was the leading cause for both leisure (45 per cent) and sport deaths (57 per cent).

The report, titled An Epidemiological Profile of Catastrophic and Severe Sport & Leisure Injuries in NSW, 2000-2004, is the first investigation into the rate of sport and recreation injuries across NSW.

During 2003-2004, there were 25,346 sport/leisure related hospitalisations, corresponding to a rate of 190 hospitalised injuries per 100,000 people. The rate of hospitalised injury was more than three times higher in males than females.

The football codes, combined, accounted for the highest proportion of sport/leisure injury hospitalisations, representing 32 per cent of all cases. Other common reasons for hospitalisation were cycling and motorcycle activities for males, and equestrian sports, netball and ice and snow sports for females.

The research was funded by the NSW Sporting Injuries Committee.

Media contacts:
Mr Soufiane Boufous, UNSW report author, 0405 956 430
Dr Ann Williamson, UNSW Risk Management Research Centre, 0414 772 114
Dan Gaffney, UNSW media office, 0411 156 015