Fewer Injuries Seen in High School Athletes
Injury rates for US high school athletes in nine popular sports have declined dramatically over the past 10 years, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
"A decade ago, injury rates were at least twice as high,” says the study lead author Dawn Comstock, Ph.D., a researcher at Columbus Children's Hospital Center for Injury Research and Policy in Columbus, Ohio.
"While part of the decrease is due to a different definition of injury, we know that sports-related injury rates are decreasing because of rule changes, improvements in protective gear, and in the diagnosis and treatment of injury," notes Dr. Comstock.
Reporting in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), researchers say the comparison is based on another study which used a slightly broader definition of injury.
Overall, the study found that high school athletes suffered about 1.4 million injuries during the 2005-06 school year, or about 2.4 injuries per 1,000 practices or competitions.
The injury rate was highest in football - almost double that of other sports.
Nevertheless, these numbers represent a big drop in injury rates in every sport except volleyball from a decade ago, says Dr. Comstock.
Participation in high-school sports is exploding. According to the study authors, 7.2 million students participated during the 2005-06 school year, up from only 4 million students in 1971-72.
Despite the obvious health benefits of physical activity, there is a downside: sports-related injuries.
Overall, high-school athletes account for an estimated 2 million injuries, half a million physician visits, and 30,000 hospitalizations each year. The actual numbers may be even higher, says Dr. Comstock.
The High School Sports-Related Injury Surveillance Study was sponsored by the CDC and used an Internet-based system to collect data on nine sports from 100 nationally representative high schools.
The nine sports were baseball, football, and wrestling (for boys); softball and volleyball (for girls); and basketball and soccer (for boys and girls).
During the 2005-06 school year, 4.2 million US adolescents participated in these sports, suffering about 1.4 million injuries that were severe enough that the injured youngsters had to stop playing for a day or more.
The injury rate in every sport was higher in competition than in practice. The majority (80 percent) of injuries were new injuries as opposed to recurrences or complications from previous injuries.
"What this means is that they probably are not over-use injuries or it may be because of the sports they looked at," says Dr. Michael Kelly, director of sports medicine services at Hackensack University Medical Center.
"If you were to look at track and field or cross country, you would see higher recurrence rates," he notes.
Dr. Kelly is developing a sports medicine center specifically geared to adolescents.
Football had an injury rate almost double that of any other sport (4.36 injuries per 1,000 practices or competitions).
Overall, wrestling came next with 2.5 injuries per 1,000 practices or competitions, then came boys' soccer (2.43), girls' soccer (2.36), and girls' basketball (2.01).
Boys' basketball, girls' volleyball, boys' baseball and girls' softball all had injury rates of less than 2 per 1,000 practices or competitions.
Concussions and fractures were more common in competition than practice. Football, girls' basketball, and wrestling had more injuries resulting in more than seven days lost from play. There were no deaths reported.
Overall, the findings present a strong argument for better prevention strategies, says Dr. Kelly.
"There are probably certain things in younger athletes that we've yet to define in terms of training, conditioning, and coaching on the prevention side," he says.
"We think it's an area where there's probably going to be more and more interest in terms of research and prevention," adds Dr. Kelly. "We've done a pretty good job on identifying, diagnosing, and treating, but we may have a ways to go in prevention."
"We don't want to make high-school sports look dangerous," explains Dr. Comstock. "They're a really important way for adolescents to incorporate physical activity.
"Our goal is to try to identify risk factors for injury, so we can develop prevention, so we can keep kids as safe as possible while playing sports," she says.
Always consult your physician for more information.
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In the US, about 30 million children and teens participate in some form of organized sports, and more than 3.5 million injuries each year, which cause some loss of time of participation, are experienced by the participants.
Almost one-third of all injuries incurred in childhood are sports-related injuries. By far, the most common injuries are sprains and strains.
Obviously, some sports are more dangerous than others.
For example, contact sports such as football can be expected to result in a higher number of injuries than a non-contact sport such as swimming.
However, all types of sports have a potential for injury, whether from the trauma of contact with other players or from overuse or misuse of a body part.
The National SAFE KIDS Campaign and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) provide information and statistics about injuries.
More than 3.5 million children ages 14 and under get hurt annually playing sports or participating in recreational activities.
Although death from a sports injury is rare, the leading cause of death from a sports-related injury is a brain injury.
Sports and recreational activities contribute to approximately 21 percent of all traumatic brain injuries among American children.
Almost 50 percent of head injuries sustained in sports or recreational activities occur during bicycling, skateboarding, or skating incidents.
More than 775,000 children ages 14 and under are treated in hospital emergency rooms for sports-related injuries each year.
Most of the injuries occurred as a result of falls, being struck by an object, collisions, and overexertion during unorganized or informal sports activities.
Playground, sports, and bicycle-related injuries occur most often among young children, between the ages of five and 9 years old.
The highest rates of injury occur in sports that involve contact and collisions.
More severe injuries occur in individual sports and recreational activities.
Most organized sports-related injuries (62 percent) occur during practice.
More than 205,400 children ages five to 14 were treated in hospital emergency rooms for basketball-related injuries.
Nearly 108,300 children ages five to 14 were treated in hospital emergency rooms for baseball-related injuries.
Baseball also has the highest fatality rate among sports for children ages 5 to 14, with three to four children dying from baseball injuries each year.
Nearly 285,000 children ages five to 14 were treated in hospital emergency rooms for bicycle-related injuries.
Almost 185,700 children ages five to 14 were treated in hospital emergency rooms for football-related injuries.
Nearly 10,600 children ages five to 14 were treated in hospital emergency rooms for ice skating-related injuries.
Nearly 27,200 children ages five to 14 were treated in hospital emergency rooms for in-line skating-related injuries.
More than 50,000 children ages five to 14 were treated in hospital emergency rooms for skateboarding-related injuries.
About 75,000 children ages five to 14 were treated in hospital emergency rooms for soccer-related injuries.
Always consult your child's physician for more information.
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