AFL 'most injury-prone sport'
AUSTRALIAN rules football, soccer, water sports, cycling and horse riding have topped a list of the nation's most injury-prone sports.
But experts warn parents should not be alarmed by the latest figures, because avoiding exercise is not the way to solve Australia's obesity crisis.
In 2002-03, just over 45,450 people were admitted to hospital after being seriously injured while playing sport, according to a new report.
Of those sports-related injuries, 65 resulted in death, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) report said.
Most injuries occurred in the football codes, with 12,600 cases.
Nearly 4000 of these injuries were while playing Australian rules, more than 3200 playing soccer, while rugby league recorded 1600 injuries, with another 522 for touch football and 516 for rugby union.
Sports injury expert Belinda Gabbe from Monash University says she is not surprised Australian Rules topped the list, because so many people play the sport.
"When you're looking at pure numbers of admissions without adjusting for how many people actually play the sport, it will look quite bad, particularly for Aussie Rules," Dr Gabbe said.
"There is a danger that people may panic when you're just reporting raw numbers and people don't consider how many participants there are across the country.
"In reality, when you consider how many people play the sport, serious injuries are probably much less of a problem than what most think."
She said being unfit could lead to much more serious consequences.
Also heading the list of injury-prone sports are water sports, with 2800 injuries recorded, closely followed by cycling, motor sports and horse riding.
According to the AIHW, water sports covers swimming, surfing, scuba diving, fishing, water skiing and using diving boards.
Fractures were the most common sports injury that required hospitalisation.
Children younger than 15 years accounted for more than a third of the people admitted to hospital with a sports injury.
Just under three-quarters hospitalised due to sports injuries were men, even though statistics showed more women were playing sport.
Sports-related injury visits to emergency departments were more common for sports like Australian rules football, cycling, soccer, basketball, netball and skateboarding, the report said.
For Australian rules, rugby league and cycling, head injuries were most common.
Dr Gabbe said just because some sports appeared to be more dangerous than others, parents should not discourage their children from getting involved in sport.
"There's a potential to be admitted to hospital for just about any form of activity," she said.
"Just being a passenger in a car, you're at risk of having an injury that could potentially put you in hospital.
"The people who play sport and do end up in hospital are the minority.
"There are many people who actually play their entire lives in a sport and never sustain an injury that requires a hospital injury - you need to look at the data in context."
