Epidemiology of injuries in typical Scandinavian team sports.

An investigation by questionnaire was undertaken in a group of 480 football players and 288 handball players (768 players). Of these 803 were injured, giving a player incidence of 4.1 injury/1000 football hours and 8.3 injury/1000 handball hours. The lower extremities were involved in 82% of the football injuries, whereas handball injuries were evenly distributed on both upper and lower extremities. The football injury prevalence was 0.36 per player, the handball injury prevalence 0.71 per player. Medical attention was given to 62% of the injured footballers and 47% of the injured handballers. Based on the injury pattern, some modifications to the rules and equipment in the two sports is suggested: The "boot-type" footwear should be tried out, and the soles in both games should correspond to the different playing surfaces that may be encountered. Stricter enforcement of the rules, and the use of a maximum size playing ground in both sports. Last, but not least a modification of the football rules concerning substitution is a must.