BACKGROUND: Gymnastics is a sport with unique technical and physical demands. Elements of high rotational landing impacts may lead to severe injuries. In order to understand the risks of the sport and design injury prevention programs the magnitude of acute injuries must be understood. The aim was to investigate acute injuries, medical invalidity and injury costs in gymnastics using national insurance data.
METHODS: Insurance data covering acute injuries in Swedish gymnastics from October 2015 to October 2020 were analyzed. All Swedish gymnasts with either a training or competition license were included (N.=333,932 licenses, 249,823 females; 84,109 males).
RESULTS: A total of 1733 acute injuries were reported, and the injury incidence was 5.2 per 1000 gymnast years, with no differences between upper and lower body. The arm followed by the foot and the knee were body locations with highest injury incidence. Skeletal injuries were most common in the arm and foot, and ligament injuries in the foot and knee. The proportion of cruciate ligament injuries was 37% of all knee injuries and 5% of all acute injuries. No significant difference between male and female gymnasts was observed. The highest proportion of medical invalidity was found in the knee (33%), the foot (22%), and the arm (20%). Sixteen percent of all cruciate ligament injuries led to medical invalidity and was the injury causing highest costs to the insurance company.
CONCLUSIONS: The knee was the third most common injury location and the injury causing the highest medical invalidity.