Injury related to rodeo sports (all ages)

There were at least 39 cases of injury among rodeo participants presenting to emergency departments in Victoria over the 5½ year period from July 2002 to December 2006. Over the same period there were a further 24 rodeo-related admissions to hospital wards. Overall, this represents an average of eleven cases of rodeo related injuries in Victoria requiring hospital treatment each year.

Age: Approximately three quarters of both presentations and admissions were teenagers and young adults aged 15 to 29.

Of all age groups, 20-29 year olds were the most affected, accounting for 56% of emergency department presentations and 66% of hospital ward admissions for rodeo related injuries.

Gender: There was a very strong male bias for rodeo related injuries. Almost all individuals presented to emergency departments for rodeo injuries were male (95%), while 100% of rodeo related admissions to hospital were male.

Fractures were the most common injury type among hospital admissions accounting for 58%.

Body region: For emergency department presentations, one third of injuries (33%) were to the upper extremity (all of the hand, arm and shoulder, except the fingers). Injuries to the lower extremity accounted for 23% while 13% were to the head, face or neck. Injuries to multiple areas of the body were recorded in a further 13% of cases (see Figure 1).

For hospital admissions (Figure 2) most injuries were to the head, face or neck (33%) followed by the upper extremity (29%) and the trunk (21%).

Animal type: Most emergency department cases were related to bulls (62%) while a smaller proportion was related to horses (21%). The remainder were either not related to animals or the animal type was not specified.

Cause: Falling from the animal was the most common cause of injury among presentations (64%), while in 15% of cases the individual was injured by being trampled or stood on. The remaining cases were the result of other or unspecified causes.

Falls were the most common cause of injury for both bull and horse related incidents, however trample injuries were more likely to be related to bulls than horses.

Injury prevention: More rodeo sports participants were admitted to hospital for injuries to the head, face and neck than any other region of the body.

This suggests that wearing protective headgear during training and competition should help to reduce the risk of some of the worst injuries currently being sustained by people partaking in rodeo sports and related activities.

Data source: Victorian Emergency Minimum Dataset (VEMD) non-admissions and Victorian Admitted Episodes Dataset (VAED) July 2002 to December 2006 (5.5 years).
Restrictions : Any values less than 5 have been replaced with an asterisk (*) and excluded from figures to protect patient confidentiality.
Search strategy: [Presentations]: A search was conducted for the text terms "rodeo", "bull riding", bullriding", "saddle bronc", "bareback" in the 250 character ‘Description of Injury Event' field of the VEMD. Narratives were manually checked and irrelevant cases excluded. A few identified cases of bareback riding coded to location codes of "home" or "farm" and were assessed as not being cases of injury to rodeo competitors and not included in the analysis. Cases subsequently admitted to hospital were excluded as they are covered under the VAED. [Admissions]: Cases in the VAED were selected if the activity code was 'U63.4 - Rodeo'. No further specifics of the rodeo task were available. Re-admissions within 30 days are excluded.