From Public Health to Player Health: Introducing the Disability-Adjusted Sporting Year (DASY) Metric for Measuring Injury and Illness Burden in Sport

Injury and illness burden in sports has traditionally been quantified using severity and time-loss metrics, which focus narrowly on days missed from sport. These measures fail to capture the full spectrum of health consequences, particularly those associated with non-time-loss injuries, chronic conditions, and lingering impairments following return to play. To address this gap, we propose the disability-adjusted sporting year (DASY), a novel metric adapted from the public health framework of disability-adjusted life years (DALYs). The DASY incorporates both the immediate and long-term health impact of sport-related injuries and illnesses by summing years of sport lost (YSL) and years lived with injury (YLI), weighted by condition-specific disability weights derived from broad population surveys. By anchoring assessments in athlete health rather than sport participation alone, the DASY enables a more comprehensive, equitable, and athlete-centered approach to surveillance, clinical decision making, and policy development. This manuscript outlines the theoretical foundation, calculation framework, and potential applications of the DASY metric, with the goal of advancing how health burden is evaluated in sport. By shifting the focus from return-to-play timelines to overall health loss, the DASY aligns athlete welfare more closely with broader public health standards and offers a robust tool for comparative risk assessment across sporting contexts.