Birutė Strukčinskienė, Neringa Strazdienė, Sigutė Norkienė, Vaiva Strukčinskaitė

Abstract

Sport and physical activity are important factors in children’s health and well-being. However, during sport activities children could be injured. Anyway, sport injuries could be avoided when injury prevention measures are used. The aim of this study was to investigate sport injuries during physical education classes in schoolchildren, and to provide the ways of sport injury prevention. The survey was conducted at eight gymnasiums in Western Lithuania. The survey involved 596 children of third and fourth gymnasium grades. The study revealed that about one-third of the schoolchildren were injured during physical education classes, mostly – in grades 6th to 8th. Boys were injured more often than that of girls. Boys were injured mostly when playing basketball and football, and girls – when playing volleyball, and during other sports activities. Most of the students suffered from not serious injuries – a very mild and mild injury, and 16.3% – from moderate injuries. Most of the students said that the teacher of physical education informed them about safe behaviour during lessons, introduced them movement technique, and demonstrated the correct and safe performance during classes. District/rural schoolchildren more than urban ones noted that the physical education teacher left them unattended during classes. Not all teachers provided knowledge or discussed sufficiently with students about sports injuries. In addition, the sports facilities are not always safe, and very few schoolchildren go for sports wearing guards. Sport injury prevention and safety promotion at school needs more attention.

Keyword(s): schoolchildren; sport injury; physical education classes; prevention.
DOI: 10.5200/sm-hs.2015.117
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