Sports Injuries

1. Open the file SportsInjuries.xls, which contains recent data on the number of participants in some of the most common sports in the US and the number of sports related injuries treated in US hospital emergency rooms. Sort the data on the number of injuries, from greatest to least.

2. Using the number of injuries as a measure of the risk of getting hurt, which sports are the most hazardous in the three cases in a)? Of all the sports, which are the least and the most hazardous according to this measure?

3. Do you think the number of injuries is a good measure of the risk of injury in a sport? Can you suggest an alternative way of assessing this risk

4. Fill column D with the ratio of the number of injuries to the number of participants. (Hint. Type =B7/C7 in D7, and then drag and fill.) This ratio is called the rate of injuries per participant. Pick one sport and in well-written sentence explain what this ratio means for that sport.

5.Sort the data on column D. What are the least and most dangerous sports according to injury rate? Using injury rate, which sports are the most hazardous in the three cases in a)?

6. Explain the different views you obtain by sorting on the number of injuries and sorting on the injury rate. Give some examples of sports whose ranking changes significantly when looking at absolute numbers and when looking at rates, and briefly explain why the ranking changes.

Comment. The preceding problem exemplifies a general principle about the quantitative measures: quantitative measures often shed light on an issue but almost always are incomplete and limited. Using quantitative methods correctly and recognizing their limitations are equally important.