Quality of life

Because they reduce stress and promote a sense of well being, sports ultimately lead to a higher quality of life. Participation in athletic activities can also be given a positive rating from an economic point of view.

Sport as a risk factor

International statistics show that every 10th accident is a sport accident.

Some 37% of the injured individuals are 22 years old or younger, 33-35% are between 23 and 32, and 15% are between 33 and 42.

If «minor sport accidents» are defined to include all sport accidents which result in no more than three days off work, we find that approx. 50% of sport accidents fall into this category. However, the number of moderately severe and very severe accidents has increased; this rise is attributed to an increased willingness to take risks, a widespread performance mentality, and an increase level of danger in a number of sports.

Today accident prevention is well organized in road traffic. Moreover, sufficient action has been taken to prevent on-the-job accidents within the framework of occupational healthy and safety.
In Alpine skiing, great efforts have been made to keep accident rates low. However, in other types of sports, in particular the so-called mass sports, targeted prevention is lacking.

In many cases, the institution of minor measures would go a long way toward reducing the risk of accidents.

The results of one study showed, for example, that 80% of student accidents took place toward the end of the practice hour as a result of fatigue. In this case it would be advisable to reduce the intensity toward the end of the hour and to refrain from difficult exercises.

A look at the accident statistics shows that there are 300,000 sport accident in Switzerland each year necessitating a visit to a doctor or even admission to hospital and resulting in time lost from work. Furthermore, sport accidents lead to 160 fatalities each year and give rise to treatment costs of approx. 3.4 billion Swiss francs.

To institute adequate preventive measures, the risk of accidents was calculated for various sports. In Europe soccer is the sport with the highest number of accidents per year, followed by Alpine skiing and ball sports such as handball, basketball and volleyball.

The statistics also show that the resident population of Switzerland between the ages of 15 and 75 spends between 43 and 63 million hours a year participating in these three sports or groups of sports. These figures put these sports in the «middle field» with respect to participation. Much higher figures were recorded for mountain hiking (225 million hours), swimming (189 million hours) and running and walking (155 million hours).

From the accident figures and participation statistics, accident risks were then calculated for the individual sports. These figures showed that ice hockey is the most dangerous sport (with statistically 13.3 accidents per 10,000 hours of participation), followed by soccer (9.7) and Alpine skiing (7.6).

According to this study, the sports with the lowest accident risk are jogging (0.45 per 10,000 hours of participation), swimming (0.35) and mountain hiking (0.2).

To prevent sport accidents, we need to take measures where there are high individual risks, high collective risks, or a combination of both.

With proper prevention, injuries cannot be ruled out entirely. However, their severity can be lessened for the most part - SUVAliv! provides tips and information material.