Occurrence of athletic injuries among female elite athletic gymnasts

A questionnaire investigation was undertaken among 18 female Nordic athletic gymnasts in the teams from their respective countries. The median occurrence of injury was three injuries per 1,000 hours (variation 0-7) with uniform distribution between acute and overexertion injuries. The percentage regional localization were: Upper limbs 24%, lower limbs 65% and trunk 11%. In the age group 18-21 years, the frequency of injury was 46% higher than that in the 14-17 year age group and gymnasts with the greatest duration of training had relatively low incidence of injuries (2.7 as compared with 5.2 injuries per 1,000 hours). Treatment consisted of visits to the general practitioner, casualty department and sport specialist or other specialist comprized 16%, 13% and 16% of all the therapeutic contacts. 5% of the injuries involved hospitalization and 50% were not treated by doctors.