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Should we ban boxing?

BMJ 2016; 352 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.i389 (Published 27 January 2016) Cite this as: BMJ 2016;352:i389

Rapid Response:

Re: Should we ban boxing?

I read with interest the comments from Carl De Crée: "There is, however, another concern which Rudd et al. are not considering, namely, whether it is fair to expect national health insurance systems, and hence the general population, to carry the financial burden of those willfully engaging in avoidable high-risk behaviors that lead to frequently or extensively having to make use of costly medical facilities. Perhaps that would be a more appropriate question for society to reflect about."

My question is where does this stop. When we look at the amount of fractures sports cause, which have significant costs, boxing is very low in our population as a cause for fracture and most of the fractures require minimal intervention[1,2,3]. In comparison football and rugby cause far more fractures[4,5,6] and have significant morbidity as well. Should we ban these sports too? Where do we stop?

[1] The epidemiology of sports-related fractures in adolescents
AM Wood, GA Robertson, L Rennie, BC Caesar, CM Court-Brown
Injury 41 (8), 834-838

[2] The epidemiology of acute sports-related fractures in adults
CM Court-Brown, AM Wood, S Aitken
Injury 39 (12), 1365-1372

[3]Sports-related fractures in South East Scotland: an analysis of 990 fractures
SA Aitken, BS Watson, AM Wood
Journal of Orthopaedic Surgery 22 (3)

[4]THE EPIDEMIOLOGY, MORBIDITY AND OUTCOME OF FRACTURES IN RUGBY UNION FROM A STANDARD POPULATION
G Robertson, AM Wood, K Heil, ACM Keenan, SA Aitken, C Court-Brown
Bone Joint Journal, 21

[5]The epidemiology, morbidity, and outcome of soccer-related fractures in a standard population
GAJ Robertson, AM Wood, J Bakker-Dyos, SA Aitken, ACM Keenan
The American journal of sports medicine 40 (8), 1851-1857

[6] Epidemiology, management, and outcome of sport-related ankle fractures in a standard UK population
GAJ Robertson, AM Wood, SA Aitken
Foot & ankle international 35 (11), 1143-1152

Competing interests: No competing interests

31 January 2016
Alexander M Wood
Orthopaedic Surgeon
Andre Keenan
Southmead Hospital Bristol
Orthopaedic Department, Southmead Hospital Bristol