Summary:

The purpose of this study was the description of sports injuries sustained by campers at summer camps, aged 7-15 years. A sample of 8 camps from the Greek camp population participated in this sport injury surveillance study. Doctors and camp directors completed reports detailing the number of sports injuries events sustained and provided specific information about each event. During the period of the study, 337 sport injury reports were completed. A total of 237 (70.3%) boys and 100 (29.7%) girls reported having a sport injury. Age of campers sustaining a sport injury was 10-12 years old (60.8%). The frequency of sports injuries was highest during the first camp season. The leading causes of sports injuries in children’s were: falls, crushed by object, collision with other person and slips. Cut/scratch injuries were the most common diagnoses (38.9%). Football, basketball and volleyball were the most frequent sport activities for injuries. Reports based surveillance systems can be successfully used to conducts sport injury surveillance among children attending summer camps. Data collected via such systems can be used to calculate sports injury rates, to describe patterns of sport injury and to identify risk factors for camper – related sport injuries. The results provide necessary information to develop prevention interventions to decrease the number of youth whose camp experiences are negatively affected by sport injury.

Keywords: sports injuries, children, summer camp