12 minute read
TRAINING – A prescription for health
How safe is our sport?
Steve Bird
Participating in any sport, or indeed pretty much any activity conveys a risk of injury. For most sports this risk is slight, or at least it is for major or life threatening injuries. Whilst at the same time, minor injuries such as small scratches or bruises that convey no lasting harm, are virtually ignored and considered to be an inevitable part of participation. So what are the injury risks in Orienteering, and how do they compare against other sports?
Sport specific injury profile
Each sport has a characteristic injury profile that is attributable to the demands of that sport. Which is why, for example, Rugby League with its frequent and forceful collisions has a very different injury profile to marathon running, which by comparison has a high incidence of repetitive overuse injuries to the feet and legs.
Epidemiology
The incidence of sports injuries can be expressed in a number of ways. For example, by simply stating the number of injuries that occur (injury incidence), but this does not take into account the fact that some sports are more popular than others in terms of the number of participants. Which means that the sport in which most injuries occurs, may not in fact be the one with the greatest relative risk to the individual. If, for example, it has a very high number of participants, but only a very small percentage of whom get injured, compared with a less popular sport, which has fewer participants, but a high percentage of which are injured. Additionally, when making these comparisons it may be desirable to factor in how often people participate, for example, just once a month, or five times a week. So when comparing the relative prevalence of sports injuries, expressions such as injuries per participation hours are sometimes used.
Traumatic vs Overuse
Traumatic injuries are those that can be attributed to a specific incident, such as a fall or colliding with a branch. Whereas overuse injuries tend to come on insidiously, and are due to repetitive actions gradually causing damage. An example of these would be a sore achilles tendon caused by running too many kms. Incidentally, here of course there is considerable individual variation in what constitutes too many kms, as some people will have the physical capacity to do far more than others before they exceed the resilience of their body tissues.
Acute vs Chronic
Injuries can also be broadly described as acute, if they’ve just occurred, or chronic if they persist. A chronic injury can be caused either by a traumatic event from which the damaged tissue fails to recover or, as indicated above, from repetitive overuse.
Orienteering injuries
One of the classic studies on injuries in Orienteering looked at the Finnish Men’s (Jukola) and Women’s (Venla) Relays1. The results of the study suggest an injury incidence of 2-3%, which equated to around 15 injuries per 1000 competition hours or 2.6 per 1000 km. These were mainly (70%) in the lower limbs and included minor blisters, scratches and abrasions. Of the more substantive injuries, ankle sprains were the most common, accounting for 25% of all injuries. This is a common finding amongst many similar studies, including that by Creagh and Reilly2 on elite female orienteers, 68% of whom reported having been injured, with ankle injuries again being the most common (43%) followed by knees (16%). Likewise Linde3 reported elite orienteers to suffer from an average of 1.7 injuries per year, 52% of which were acute and 48% overuse. And yet again, ankle sprains were the most common, comprising 37% of acute injuries, with most of the remainder being contusions caused by falls or bumps against branches or rocks. Not surprisingly, these mainly occurred during competition.
Comparison with other sports
As indicated above, the ankle is the most commonly injured site in Orienteering, but how do these compare with other sports? In the study by Lian et al4, knee injuries, such as ‘Jumpers Knee’ were common in volleyball and basketball, with a prevalence of 44% and 32% of the participants respectively. This compared with no reported cases in Orienteering. Additionally, the study by Bahr et al5 indicated that the prevalence of lower back pain was no greater amongst orienteers than non-athletes.
Long term consequences
A common claim amongst the non-sporting fraternity is that playing sport will increase your risk of arthritis. Well the evidence suggests that to some extent they are correct, but not entirely, and the good news is that Orienteering is not likely to increase your risk. Evidence for this comes from a study by Thelin et al.6 which was based in Sweden and showed that the increased risk of knee osteoarthritis was associated with a previous traumatic injury to the knee. Which is why participants in sports such as Soccer and Ice-Hockey, in which traumatic injuries are relatively common, have an elevated risk of later osteoarthritis. But in sports such as Orienteering and Track & field, where traumatic knee injuries were not so common, the risk of knee osteoarthritis, was no greater than that in the general non-sporting population. Likewise the study by Kujala7 et al. showed no increase in lower limb disability in older orienteers, compared with aged matched non-smoking, but non-athletic men. But, incidentally, they did report a greatly reduced risk of heart attacks amongst the orienteers, with the orienteers displaying only 1/7th of the prevalence of heart attacks compared with their less active compatriots.
Other health risks
However whilst Orienteering conveys a relatively low injury risk, and considerable benefits to our general health, we should still take precautions against other health concerns such as tetanus, and when travelling abroad be aware of any local issues such as Lymes disease, which is carried by ticks, and is not uncommon in certain parts of Europe (particularly Eastern Europe).
Reducing risk of injury
Four key factors that could reduce your risk of injury: • Wear protective clothing – glasses, gaiters, and ankle braces if you’re vulnerable to sprains; • Undertake appropriate training loads – to prevent overuse injuries; • Medical precautions – anti-tetanus injections; • Warm up – a likely benefit but unproven.
Conclusion
The risk of severe injury in Orienteering appears to be slight, compared with many other sports. But the ankle is commonly sprained. However, in saying this, in any discussion the slight, but nevertheless real, risks in participating in Orienteering, need to be considered against the significant, very real and arguably greater risks associated with not doing any activity. Which, as indicated in a previous article, include heart disease, diabetes and some cancers. So in reality the risks of both morbidity and premature mortality are likely to be greatly reduced through our participation in Orienteering. And to misquote an oft presented saying: “Whilst Orienteering may not add many years to your life, it can certainly add life to your years”.
References
1. Linko PE, Blomberg HK and Frilander HM (1997).
Orienteering competition injuries: injuries incurred in the
Finnish Jukola and Venla relay competitions. British Journal of
Sports Medicine, 31: 205-8. 2. Creagh U and Reilly T (1998). Training and injuries amongst elite female orienteers. Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical
Fitness, 38:75-9. 3. Linde F. (1986) Injuries in orienteering. British Journal of
Sports Medicine, 20: 125-7. 4. Lian OB, Engebretsen L and Bahr R (2005). Prevalence of
Jumper’s knee among elite athletes from different sports.
American Journal of Sports Medicine, 33: 561-67. 5. Bahr R, Anderson SO, Loken S, Fossen B, Hansen T and Holme
I (2004). Lower back pain amongst endurance athletes. Spine, 29: 449-54. 6. Thelin N, Holmberg S and Thelin A (2006). Knee injuries account for the sports-related increased risk of knee osteoarthritis. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in
Sports, 16: 329-333. 7. Kujala UM, Sarna S, Kaprio J, Koskenvuo M and Karjalainen
J (1999). Heart attacks and lower limb function in master endurance athletes. Medicine and Science in Sports and
Exercise, 31: 1041-6. Footnote: During the past few months I’ve had to accompany a couple of orienteers to local hospitals as a result of falls they’ve had during an event. The most recent of these was the Australian Championships, where there were three orienteers in the emergency department of Dubbo Hospital, each with a different affliction. The receptionist commented that the waiting room was filling up with orienteers, and whilst we tend to view our sport as fairly safe, it’s interesting to consider how it compares with others. Professor Steve Bird is at RMIT University, Melbourne. Steve worked with the Great Britain National Orienteering Squad for over 10 years and is now assisting the Victorian Junior Squad.
2007 AUSTRALIAN CHAMPIONSHIPS – DUBBO continued from page 19
Australian Relays, Single’s Forest, 15 July
The Relays returned to the gully-spur forests east of Dubbo but, unlike the NSW Championships, rock was not a major factor. This was the business end of the National League, although most of the results were settled before the start, barring an improbable set of results. An improbable set of results was almost what we got in M21. NSW, bolstered by Julian Dent’s first competitive outing for the week, were clear favourites, but Victoria only needed 3rd place to take the title (with 5th being enough if NSW won). The NSW Stingers were a little off the pace as Dave Shepherd took an early lead for a thin Canberra team, but they took control on the second leg through Rob Preston. They were 3mins ahead going into the last leg, and Dent extended that to 7min with a very impressive final leg, easily the fastest of the day. Simon Uppill’s last leg was almost as good, pulling the South Australians up to 2nd, but the real drama was happening elsewhere. There were three Victorian teams in the race. One, which came a solid third, was ineligible for National League points because it included non-resident Rune Olsen. Another, the nominal first team, had started slowly but looked to be set for, at worst, 3rd, until Troy de Haas completely missed the first spectator control on the final leg. That left everything in the hands of the one remaining team, with Jim Russell needing to catch 6mins on Jason McCrae to make sure of the National League. He was still behind at the final spectator control but got in front over the last few controls to make sure of the title (although other results meant the Nuggets would have won anyway as long as he finished). The women’s National League was decided long before Relays day, but they turned on a fantastic race anyway, with a sprint finish for victory and only 2mins covering the top four teams. A lead group of three, Jo Allison, Tracy Bluett and Grace Elson, broke away on the first leg, 4mins ahead of the rest of the field. NSW were still in front after two legs, a minute ahead of the ACT, but Susanne Casanova’s second leg put South Australia back into the mix another 30secs back, and Victoria were still in touch after a solid effort by Ilka Barr. With NSW slipping a little, it ended up coming down to a race between ACT and South Australia. The last four controls were common, and Cassie Trewin held a narrow lead over Vanessa Round for most of it, but it was too small a gap to hold and they hit the last control together. Round then won the race for the South Australians in a hard-fought sprint finish, with a 3sec margin. NSW were another minute behind that, with the Victorians a further minute back. The only other National League issue in dispute was the Junior Boys, where Victoria needed a 2nd place to wrap it up. No team was especially convincing, but the Victorians did enough to win, building a 10min lead over their Tasmanian rivals by the end of the second leg. Queensland comfortably beat all the other State teams, although a New Zealand JWOC team gave them something to think about before finishing 3mins behind. Tasmania dominated the remaining A classes, winning M16, M45, M55 and W35. M45 was the best race of these. Paul Pacque set them up on the first leg and they took a 7min lead into the final leg. Mark Darvodelsky almost ran down Mike Dowling, running on the same split, but a late charge left NSW 7secs short at the finish line. In contrast, the Tasmanians had to come from slightly behind in M16, as Oscar Phillips recovered from a disappointing individual event to pull away from Kurt Neumann and take a 2min victory. Queensland also had their moments. Unsurprisingly, they took out W16 (and got 3rd for good measure), and Clive Pope came from behind to give them a win over Tasmania in M65. Sue Neve brought the Victorians back from a 2min deficit to take W45 with a bit to spare, whilst the NSW team scored comfortably in W55.
New South Wales invites you to a carnival of fantastic orienteering on the same incredibly detailed maps that were used for JWOC 2007. A challenging mix of wild bush, gullies and fantastic rock features with plenty of fast open forest for runners.
Easter is a peak visitor period for the region. Accommodation will be at a premium. You should book early. Further information on the World Wide Web at: http://aus3days2008.orienteering.asn.au/ or email: easter2008orienteering@hotmail.com
For a comprehensive list of accommodation choices visit www.dubbotourism.com.au. Or contact the friendly team at the Dubbo Visitors Centre & Events Bureau on (02) 6801 4450
Friday 21 March
Family Relays, Elite Prologue and the open to all Slologue. Saturday 22 March
Australian 3 Days Individual, Day 1 Sunday 23 March
Australian 3 Days Individual, Day 2
Australian Universities
Championships Monday 24 March
Australian 3 Days Individual, Day 3
Nick Andrewartha Belinda Lawford Louis Elson Bridget Anderson
Jess Davis
Morten Neve Simon Uppill
