Sex-Related Injury Patterns among Selected High School Sports

2000 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 385-391 ◽  
Author(s):  
John W. Powell ◽  
Kim D. Barber-Foss

This cohort observational study was undertaken to test the hypothesis that the incidence of injuries for girls participating in high school sports is greater than that for boys. From 1995 through 1997, players were included in our study if they were listed on the school's varsity team roster for boys’ or girls’ basketball, boys’ or girls’ soccer, boys’ baseball, or girls’ softball. Injuries and opportunities for injury were recorded daily. Certified athletic trainers reported injury and exposure data. Based on 39,032 player-seasons and 8988 reported injuries, the injury rates per 100 players for softball (16.7) and for girls’ soccer (26.7) were higher than for baseball (13.2) and boys’ soccer (23.4). The knee injury rates per 100 players for girls’ basketball (4.5) and girls’ soccer (5.2) were higher than for their male counterparts. Major injuries occurred more often in girls’ basketball (12.4%) and soccer (12.1%) than in boys’ basketball (9.9%) and soccer (10.4%). Baseball players (12.5%) had more major injuries than softball players (7.8%). There was a higher number of surgeries, particularly knee and anterior cruciate ligament surgeries, for female basketball and soccer players than for boys or girls in other sports.

2009 ◽  
Vol 44 (6) ◽  
pp. 645-652 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellen E. Yard ◽  
Christy L. Collins ◽  
R. Dawn Comstock

Abstract Context: High school athletes sustain more than 1.4 million injuries annually. National high school sports injury surveillance forms the foundation for developing and evaluating preventive interventions to reduce injury rates. For national surveillance, individuals must report consistently and accurately with little one-on-one interaction with study staff. Objective: To examine the feasibility of relying on high school coaches as data reporters in a national, Internet-based sports injury surveillance study, using the same methods that have already proven successful in the National High School Sports-Related Injury Surveillance Study, which calls on certified athletic trainers (ATs) as reporters. Design: Prospective injury surveillance study. Setting: Eighteen United States high schools Participants: Athletic trainers and varsity coaches for football, boys' and girls' soccer, and boys' and girls' basketball. Main Outcome Measure(s): Quantity and quality of exposure and injury reports. Results: All enrolled ATs participated, compared with only 43.0% of enrolled coaches. Participating ATs submitted 96.7% of expected exposure reports, whereas participating coaches submitted only 36.5%. All ATs reported athlete exposures correctly, compared with only 2 in 3 coaches. Participating ATs submitted 338 injury reports; participating coaches submitted only 55 (16.3% of the 338 submitted by ATs). Injury patterns differed between AT-submitted and coach-submitted injury reports, with ATs reporting a higher proportion of ankle injuries and coaches reporting a higher proportion of knee injuries. The reports submitted by ATs and coaches for the same injury had low agreement for diagnosis and time loss, with only 63.2% and 55.3% of pairs, respectively, providing the same response. The ATs lacked more responses for demographic questions, whereas coaches lacked more responses regarding the need for surgery. Conclusions: Whenever possible, ATs should be the primary data reporters in large, national studies. In high schools without access to an AT, researchers must be willing to devote significant time and resources to achieving high participation and compliance from other reporters.


2011 ◽  
Vol 46 (6) ◽  
pp. 648-654 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellen Shanley ◽  
Mitchell J. Rauh ◽  
Lori A. Michener ◽  
Todd S. Ellenbecker

Context: Participation in high school sports has grown 16.1% over the last decade, but few studies have compared the overall injury risks in girls' softball and boys' baseball. Objective: To examine the incidence of injury in high school softball and baseball players. Design: Cohort study. Setting: Greenville, South Carolina, high schools. Patients or Other Participants: Softball and baseball players (n = 247) from 11 high schools. Main Outcome Measure(s): Injury rates, locations, types; initial or subsequent injury; practice or game setting; positions played; seasonal trends. Results: The overall incidence injury rate was 4.5/1000 athlete-exposures (AEs), with more injuries overall in softball players (5.6/1000 AEs) than in baseball players (4.0/1000 AEs). Baseball players had a higher initial injury rate (75.9/1000 AEs) than softball players (66.4/1000 AEs): rate ratio (RR) = 0.88, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.4, 1.7. The initial injury rate was higher than the subsequent injury rate for the overall sample (P < .0001) and for softball (P < .0001) and baseball (P < .001) players. For both sports, the injury rate during games (4.6/1000 AEs) was similar to that during practices (4.1/1000 AEs), RR = 1.22, 95% CI = 0.7, 2.2. Softball players were more likely to be injured in a game than were baseball players (RR = 1.92, 95% CI = 0.8, 4.3). Most injuries (77%) were mild (3.5/1000 AEs). The upper extremity accounted for the highest proportion of injuries (63.3%). The incidence of injury for pitchers was 37.3% and for position players was 15.3%. The rate of injury was highest during the first month of the season (7.96/1000 AEs). Conclusions: The incidence of injury was low for both softball and baseball. Most injuries were minor and affected the upper extremity. The injury rates were highest in the first month of the season, so prevention strategies should be focused on minimizing injuries and monitoring players early in the season.


2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (7_suppl5) ◽  
pp. 2325967119S0030
Author(s):  
Scott O. Burkhart ◽  
Dustin M. Loveland ◽  
Troy M. Smurawa ◽  
John Polousky

Objectives: Football has been a sport with high concussion rates when examined independently (Rosenthal et al., 2014). Accurately describing injury trends in high school sports is necessary to identify student-athletes at the greatest risk of injury and where potential injury reduction interventions should be focused. With increased reported high school concussion injuries and associated state legislative requirements, increased incidence rates are needed. The purpose of this study was to provide updated high-school football concussion incidence rates. Methods: Data Source and Study Period This study used data from the Rank One Health Injury Surveillance Database (ROH ISD). Data for the current study were analyzed across 6 calendar years (2012 through 2017) from 1,999 high schools. Data from the current study examined high school football concussion data in males ages 14 to 18. The ROH ISD consists of a convenience sample of participating schools from 2012 to 2017. Exposure and injury data represent a convenience sample of US high schools. For the current study, only data provided across all 1,999 high schools were included. All 1,999 high schools included in the current study logged practice and game participation events for each individual athlete participating in football at the respective high school and athletic exposures (AEs) are an accurate representation of rostered athletes participating in either practices or games by age and calendar year. The ROH ISD was deemed Category 4 IRB exempt. Statistical Analysis Injury counts, practice exposures, game exposures, and distributions by event type (practice or game), age, and injury mechanism were examined. Injury rates per 1,000 AEs and injury rate ratios (IRRs) were calculated by event type. Injury proportion ratios (IPRs) were used to examine differences by calendar year. Risk ratios (RRs) were calculated to compare event type by calendar year. All 95% confidence intervals (CIs) not containing 1.0 were considered statistically significant. Results: 997,308 male student-athletes participated in high school football. ATs recorded a total of 14,103 concussions in high school football from a total of 235,134 total injuries across all high school sports. High school football concussions accounted for 6% of all injuries in high school sports from 2012-2017. More concussions occurred in games (51.8%) than practices (48.2%). Decreases were found in annual injury rates for practices in high school football student-athletes from 2012 to 2016 with an increase in 2017. Decreases were found in annual injury rates for games from 2012 to 2016 with an increase in 2017. IPR decreased by year from 2012 to 2016 (with an increase in 2017. IRR and RR comparisons for games versus practices were significant from 2012 to 2017 (Table 1). Conclusion: This study marks the largest epidemiological high school football concussion incidence investigation to date. The findings from this study provide updated high school football concussion incidence rates and provide further evidence of differences in injury rates when comparing practices and games. The higher rates of concussions occurring in games relative to practices emphasize prior trends of injury risk relative to the level of competition. Overall, results highlight a decline in injury rates over time and lower rates of injury compared to prior high school football epidemiological concussion studies. [Table: see text]


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (5) ◽  
pp. 232596712091917
Author(s):  
Andrew S. Gupta ◽  
Lauren A. Pierpoint ◽  
R. Dawn Comstock ◽  
Michael G. Saper

Background: Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tears are common among high school athletes, with sex-based differences accounting for higher injury rates in girls. Previous epidemiological studies on ACL injuries focusing on adolescent athletes have looked at injuries across multiple sports, but few have analyzed ACL tears in solely high school soccer athletes. Purpose: To examine sex-based differences in the epidemiology of ACL injuries among high school soccer players in the United States (US). Study Design: Descriptive epidemiological study. Methods: ACL injury data for US high school soccer players were obtained from the internet-based National High School Sports-Related Injury Surveillance Study’s High School RIO (Reporting Information Online) system. Athletic trainers from a random sample of 100 high schools from 8 strata based on US Census geographic region reported data for athlete-exposures (AEs) (practice or competition) and ACL injuries from 2007 through 2017. Injury rates were calculated as the number of ACL injuries per 100,000 AEs. Subgroup differences were evaluated with rate ratios (RRs) or injury proportion ratios (IPRs) and 95% CIs. Statistical differences in demographics between groups were examined using independent t tests. Comparisons of categorical data (ie, level of play) were performed using the Wald chi-square test. Results: The reported number of ACL injuries corresponded to weighted national estimates of 41,025 (95% CI, 33,321-48,730) ACL injuries in boys’ soccer and 110,028 (95% CI, 95,349-124,709) in girls’ soccer during the study period. The rate of injuries was higher in girls’ soccer (13.23/100,000 AEs) than boys’ soccer (4.35/100,000 AEs) (RR, 3.04 [95% CI, 2.35-3.98]). The rate of ACL injuries was higher in competition compared with practice for girls (RR, 14.77 [95% CI, 9.85-22.15]) and boys (RR, 8.69 [95% CI, 5.01-15.08]). Overall, a smaller proportion of ACL injuries were caused by player-player contact for girls (30.1%) compared with boys (48.6%) (IPR, 0.62 [95% CI, 0.41-0.93]). Conclusion: ACL injury rates and patterns in high school soccer players differed between sex, type of exposure (practice vs competition), and mechanism of injury.


2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (3_suppl) ◽  
pp. 2325967119S0015
Author(s):  
Andrew Gupta ◽  
Lauren Pierpoint ◽  
Dawn Comstock ◽  
Michael Saper

BACKGROUND Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries are common among adolescent athletes, with soccer being the sport most frequently implicated in girls’ ACL injuries. The current literature on ACL injuries, while extensive, lacks a comprehensive study of ACL injuries in United States (US) high school soccer players. The objective of this study was to describe the epidemiology of ACL injuries among US high school soccer players. METHODS ACL injury and athlete exposure (AE) data for US high school soccer players were obtained from the internet-based National High School Sports-Related Injury Surveillance System, High School RIO (Reporting Information Online) dataset collected from school years 2007-2008 through 2016-2017. Injury rates were calculated as the number of ACL injuries per 100,000 AEs. Subgroup differences were evaluated with rate ratios (RRs) or injury proportion ratios (IPRs) and 95% Confidence Intervals (CIs). Subgroup differences were examined with independent t-tests. Comparisons of categorical data (i.e., mechanism of injury) were performed using Pearson’s?2 tests. RESULTS The number of ACL injuries reported to High School RIO corresponded to weighted national estimates of 41,205 (95% CI = 33,321 – 48,730) ACL injuries in boys’ soccer and 110,029 (95% CI = 95,349 – 124,709) in girls’ soccer during the study period. ACL injury rates were significantly higher in girls’ soccer (13.23 per 100,000 AEs) than boys’ soccer (4.35 per 100,000 AEs) (RR = 3.04, 95% CI = 2.35 – 3.98) and were significantly higher in competition compared to practice for both girls (RR = 14.77, 95% CI = 9.85 – 22.15) and boys (RR = 8.69, 95% CI = 5.01 – 15.08). A greater proportion of ACL injuries were due to player-player contact in boys (48.6%) compared to girls (30.1%) (IPR = 1.62, 95% CI = 1.08 – 2.42). There was no statistical difference in the proportion of ACL injuries managed surgically in boys and girls (84% vs. 78%, respectively). CONCLUSIONS There are sex-based differences in mechanism of injury and ACL injury rate in high school soccer players. In addition, boys and girls showed higher rates of injury during competition. This study suggests several areas for targeted evidence-based ACL injury prevention strategies in US high school soccer players.


2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (7_suppl5) ◽  
pp. 2325967119S0034
Author(s):  
Samuel L. Baron ◽  
Shayla J. Veasley ◽  
Matthew T. Kingery ◽  
Michael J. Alaia ◽  
Dennis A. Cardone

Objectives: There has been continued controversy regarding whether or not headgear use in women’s lacrosse will increase or decrease the rate of head injuries. In 2017, the Public Schools Athletic of New York City became the first high school organization in the country to mandate ASTM standard F3137 headgear for all women’s lacrosse players. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of mandated headgear use on the rate of head and face injuries in high school women’s lacrosse. Methods: This was a prospective cohort study. The study group included eight varsity and junior varsity women’s lacrosse teams, as well as their game opponents, who were mandated to wear F3137 headgear for all practice and game events over the course of the 2017 and 2018 seasons. Certified athletic trainers assessed and documented all injuries that occurred as a result of participation on the lacrosse teams and athlete exposures were estimated based on the number of team practice and game events. Injury rates were compared with those from the High School RIO (Reporting Information Online) injury data reports from the 2009 to 2016 seasons. Results: Over the study period, 17 total injuries were reported during 22,397 exposures for an injury rate of 0.76 injuries per 1,000 athlete-exposures. Two head/face injuries, both of which were classified as concussions, were reported during the study for a head/face injury rate and concussion rate of 0.09 per 1,000 athlete-exposures. The headgear cohort demonstrated significant decreases in rates of in-game head/face injury (RR 0.141, 95% CI [0.004, 0.798]), in-game concussion (RR 0.152, 95% CI [0.004, 0.860) and practice non-head/face injury (RR 0.239, 95% CI [0.049, 0.703]) when compared to the control cohort. Conclusion: Mandated use of F3137 headgear was shown to be effective at lowering the rate of head or face injury and concussions in women’s lacrosse. Additionally, mandated headgear use was also shown to lower the rate of injury to body locations other than the head or face during practice. [Table: see text]


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