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Abstract Background: Equestrian sports are practiced all over the world and are a popular leisure activity in Sweden. Equestrianism is the country's second-largest youth sport. Previous studies indicate that equestrianism is accident-prone. However, few previous studies have examined acute equestrian injuries leading to permanent medical impairment. Methods: By using nationwide insurance data including all injured equestrian registered in the Swedish Equestrian Federation, the objective was to examine acute injuries. The injury incidence and injuries leading to permanent medical impairment were examined. All equestrians injured during 2017-2021 were included (n=6876). Injury incidence was calculated separately for males and females as well as for different age groups by dividing the number of insurance claims by the number of members and multiplying by 1000. Risk Ration was calculated between gender. Pearson’s chi-squared test was used to analyse differences in distributions for categorical variables. Results: The majority of injuries affected females, correlating with an almost three times higher risk compared to males. Those aged 21-40 years were associated with the highest injury risk (14.26/1000 registered riders). In total twelve percent of all injuries led to permanent medical impairment. Injuries to the upper and lower extremities, along with fractures, had a higher risk of resulting in an impairment. Conclusions: The predominant injuries resulting in permanent medical impairment were arm and leg injuries, but to prevent the most serious injuries that significantly affect the rider's daily life, efforts to prevent head and spinal cord neck injuries should be implemented. Head injures remain the most frequent, serious and the most important injuries to prevent and mitigate within equestrian sports.
Stigson et al. (Wed,) studied this question.