Jockey head injuries, especially concussions, are common in horse racing. Current helmets do help reduce the severity and incidences of head injury, but the high concussion incidence suggests that there may be scope to further improve the performance of equestrian helmets. Finite element simulations in ABAQUS/Explicit were used to model a realistic helmet model during standard helmeted rigid headform impacts and helmeted head model (UCDBTM) impacts. Current helmet standards determine helmet performance based solely on linear acceleration. Brain injury related values (stress and strain) from the UCDBTM showed that a performance improvement based on linear acceleration does not imply the same improvement in head injury related brain tissue loads. It is recommended to include angular kinematics in future equestrian helmet standards, as angular acceleration was seen to correlate with stress and strain in the brain.

In recent years instances of aggression by patients towards health workers appear to have become more frequent. In Spain, no scientific studies appears to have been performed so far on this question. We analyzed questionnaires on workplace aggression from a stratified sample of 1826 health professionals at 3 hospitals and 22 rural and urban Primary Care facilities located in the Northeast and East of Spain. We found 11% of health workers had been a victim of physical aggression, 5% on more than one occasion, while 64% had been exposed to threatening behaviour, intimidation or insults. About 34% had suffered threats and intimidation on at least one occasion, and 23.8% repeatedly. Over 35% had been subjected to insults on at least one occasion, and 24.3% repeatedly. In general the incidence was higher in large hospitals, with very high levels in services such as Accident and Emergency and Psychiatry.

This article presents and analyses injury incidence rates for amateur and professional racing jockeys in Ireland, France and Britain by means of a retrospective study and review of published data. Amateur jump racing was seen to have the highest fall risk in these three countries (between 115 and 140 falls/1000 rides). Jump racing also had the highest rates of injury/ride amongst both amateur and professional jockeys. Flat racing, however, had the highest rates of injuries/fall (34-44%). Of all the injuries in both jump and flat racing populations of amateur and professional jockeys, 15% were concussive head injuries, and more than half of these involved loss of consciousness. Professional jump jockeys in Ireland fell less frequently than those in France or Britain. Their injury/fall rate and injury/ride rate were highest in Britain. Professional flat racing jockeys in France had the lowest rates of injuries/fall and injuries/ride, while those in Ireland had the highest.

No abstract

No abstract