Which sports are the most injury-prone? Rank these sports from 1 to 10 based on how you think they rate for injuries. 1 means the most injuries to 10 being the least.
Running, Basketball, Rugby Union, Tennis, Australian Rules Football, Soccer, Cricket, Netball, Rugby League, Aerobics.
Ok while you still have that pen out (of course you do).....put these seven causes of deaths in Australia in order. The first should be the one causing the most number of deaths and the seventh the least:
Crocodile attacks, Drownings/submersions, Scuba diving accidents, Lightning strikes, Shark attacks, Motor vehicle accidents, Bee stings.
See this blog is about people's perceptions of danger. As a Rugby Union player who has played over a 1000 games and only ever suffered from one broken bone in my thumb (and that was against a Rugby League player) I am constantly amused by people who say that Rugby Union is a rough and dangerous game. I am also amused by mothers who say their son is not allowed to play Rugby because they fear he will get hurt, and they send him off to play soccer instead....or even tennis. Is this valid reasoning or just perception?
I also know people who fear visiting the beach because they are worried about shark attacks. No, not just country people. Yet, these same people will continue to work or play golf in a lightning storm, play in a yard where there are bees collecting pollen or even drive to look at the beach. But which of these really poses the greater danger?
Talking to people from overseas a number of them said they would love to visit Australia but were scared of all our spiders and snakes. I was surprised as they came from countries with wild animals and grizzly bears. (The worse our bear does is piddle on you according to one ex-tourism minister.) Spiders don't even rate in the list of causes of death for the 10 year period above. Why? Well in Australia only two types of spiders cause death, the male Sydney Funnel Web and the Redback spider. Since anti-venoms have been made available in 1981 there have been no recorded deaths from spider bites.
And snakes.... well presumably in the ten year period surveyed there were less than 8 deaths from snake bites because they did not even rate and 8 deaths were the lowest number of the top 7 causes in the survey. According to an article by Brian Bush there have been only 40 deaths from snake bite in Australia in the past 27 years and this is by far the lowest number of deaths for any continent (except Antartica). Brown also points out that there are more deaths in Australia each year from horse riding accidents (21 vs. 1.6). He observes that more people have died in the world from eating turtle flesh (certain turtle flesh contain a poison called chelonitoxin) than have ever died from snake bite in Australia. So, unless you are a mouse, stop worrying. And just in case you have heard about the deadly sea snake..... there are no reported deaths from sea snake bites in Australia.
In their book Freakonomics Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner tell the story of a child who wanted to go and play with a friend. The parents don't let her go to the friend's home because there is a gun in the house. Instead the child is allowed to go and play at a different friend's house. This one has a pool. A reasonable decision by the parents you would think. However, statistically the child has more chance of dying from drowning than by a gun accident. Levitt and Dunbner say “roughly 100 times more likely”. So the safer house would be the one with the gun not the one with the pool. In Australia this is probably more so the case. Deaths from accidental shootings are close to nonexistent but death from drowning in household pools are high every year. In 2008 for example there were 40 deaths from drowning in Australia.
OK. To settle office arguments.....the answers to the quizzes.
According to the Medibank Private Safe Sports Report 2006, the top 10 most injury-prone sports (based on patient presentations to Australian hospital emergency departments and general medical practices) are:
1. Australian Rules Football
2. Basketball
3. Netball
4. Running
5. Tennis
6. Cricket
7. Soccer
8. Aerobics
9. Rugby League
10. Rugby Union
According to statistics (from Stevens & Paxton, 1992) the number of deaths in Australia for a ten year period, 1980 to 1990 are as follows;
1. Motor vehicle accidents 32,772 deaths
2. Drownings/submersions 3,367
3. Scuba diving accidents 88
4. Bee stings 20
5. Lightning strikes 19
6. Shark attacks 11
7. Crocodile attacks 8
Oh, I was going to put that! Ha ha.
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