Injury risk in athletes: mind how you go!
Sport injuries are injuries that occur during sport, exercising or athletic activities. Musculoskeletal injuries occur frequently in athletes. Musculoskeletal injuries usually occur when there is an overload of the musculoskeletal structures which exceed the ability of adaptation. Understanding what professionals who work with patients with sports injuries think about prevention has been suggested as an important aspect to improve the effectiveness of programs to prevent sports injuries. Musculoskeletal injuries are seen common amongst athletes, this majority of injuries are traced to a combination of factors, and so with this….a specific contrivance for it cannot be established. Avoidance of sport injuries should be a watch word for the athletes.
In sport, there are many risk factors that exposes the athlete to injury and this could be seen in two categories which are the intrinsic risk factors and the extrinsic risk factors. Intrinsic risk factors are personal factors like body mass, skeletal alignment, muscle strength, gender, behaviour, age, height, balance, endurance which might rarely cause injury but increases the risk of injury. The extrinsic risk factors are factors like sport equipment such as helmet, shoulder pads, mouth guards, etc., conditions of the sport setting such as rain, heat or cold, running or playing surfaces, etc.
Prevention helps in reducing potential sport injuries and also provides several benefits to the athletes. Prevention of injuries in sport can be seen in three ways; the primary prevention involves the avoidance of injury, example being worn as a team on ankle braces; the secondary prevention which involves an early identification and treatment acquired once an injury has occurred. This is to ensure that the injury is taken care of and recovering correctly. This at the same time will limit the concern for other medical problems that could stem from the injury; the tertiary prevention involves the therapy to reduce and also correct an existing injury. If this preventive measures are been inculcated, there will be a lesser chance of injuries occurrence.
Prevention of sport injuries provides several benefits such as athlete’s growing healthier, athletes potential for better performance, athlete’s duration of participation in sport and also reduced medical costs.
It is of importance to take into consideration the exposure and awareness of injury risk and its effects on athletes as to the benefits and sport outcomes it comes with.