Development and implementation of an injury surveillance system in Swiss Olympic wrestling

It is widely recognised that regular physical activity has benefits on many physiological systems and a protective effect against many diseases [1]. To maintain their health status, many individuals choose to participate in club sports. However, sports also bear a certain risk of injury, such that participation always represents a ‘double-edged sword’. To exploit the maximum benefit from sports participation, it appears therefore important to take preventive measures against sports-related injuries.
As described by van Mechelen et al. [2], any injury prevention process should begin with observing the injury epidemiology of the sport concerned and investigating the injury mechanisms. Both aspects can be explored using an injury surveillance system (ISS), but this approach may be prone to the problem of inconsistent reporting and/or inaccurate data collection because the ISS design may not match the users’ needs, the content may not be valid, and the implementation may be insufficiently planned. For these reasons, it is important to proceed methodically when designing and implementing an ISS. While this has been performed in some sports, such as soccer (e.g. [3]), sports-specific ISS tools are rare and are rarely implemented in less common sports, resulting in a lack of data. Olympic wrestling is an example of a rather marginal sport. It covers Greco-Roman and Freestyle wrestling styles, both grappling-type combat sports disciplines that have high injury rates due to their full-contact nature. The relatively sparse literature indicates injury rates ranging from 2.23 to 26.4 injuries per 1,000 athlete exposures [4-5].
To help enrich the general body of knowledge on epidemiology and mechanisms of wrestling-specific injuries, as well as to establish a basis for adequate prevention programs specifically for Swiss Wrestling athletes, the objective of this research is to develop and implement a corresponding ISS.