Incidence of acute injuries among licensed and non-licensed cyclists using insurance registry data

Stigson, Helena; Åman, Malin; Larsson, Magnus

Affiliations

²Vehicle Safety Division, Mechanics and Maritime Sciences, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden

³Division of Insurance Medicine, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden

⁴Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences, Department of Physical activity and Health and the Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery, Stockholm Sports Trauma Research Center at Karolinska Institutet

⁵Norwegian Public Roads Administration, Norway

⁶Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute, Swede

Abstract and keywords

Few previous studies have examined acute injuries in competitive cycling or training as compared to other sports. By using nationwide insurance data including all injured cyclist registered in the Swedish Cycling Federation and all reported injuries during exercise race in Sweden, the objective was to examine acute injuries during competitive cycling or training for different types of cyclists. The injury incidence and injuries leading to permanent medical impairment were examined. All cyclists that were injured during 2008-2017 were included (n=1937).

Among the 2666 licensed cyclists the incidence of cyclists injured during training or competition was 44 per 1000 licensed cyclists per year. Focusing on participants in exercise races, the incidence was annually 1.5 injured cyclists per 1000 participants per year. The most commonly injured body region was the upper extremity (41%), followed by head and neck (18%). In total 9.4% of all injured cyclists sustained a permanent medical impairment. Given an injury, non-licensed participants in exercise races were slightly older, and the proportion of females were higher (30% vs. 16%), than among licensed cyclists. The injury incidence among the cyclists was high, and to maintain a healthy and physically active population it is important to make efforts to prevent injuries.

Keywords: Bicycles; Injury; Mountain biking; Road cycling; Sports

Links

URL: http://www.ircobi.org/wordpress/downloads/irc19/pdf-files/84.pdf

Cited Works (3)

Year	Entry
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