As kids start heading back to school, the annual rituals of football two-a-days and cheerleading practice are also getting under way. Other sports will be gearing up as well. But some recent research finds that kids are more likely than ever before to be injured in school sports and a national group of trainers is sounding alarms about the risks that two-a-days (a time-honored tradition in which football teams hold two practices a day) pose to young athletes.
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In a recently released report, researchers found that schoolchildren these days were more likely to get hurt in gym class than they were a decade ago. The study, published in Pediatrics, is based on data from the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission's National Electronic Injury Surveillance System. The data shows that the number of injuries had jumped 150 percent from 1997 to 2007, with the increase seen for both boys and girls and across all age groups. Six sports accounted for 70 percent of injuries – running, basketball, football, volleyball, soccer, and gymnastics.
The Reuters article also says that high school cheerleading accounted for about 73 catastrophic injuries – those usually involving spinal cord damage. That's according to a report (PDF) by the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research, which collects and disseminates death and permanent disability sports injury data that involve brain and/or spinal cord injuries.
A study of data from the Sudden Death in Young Athletes Registry, also published in Pediatrics, found that lacrosse players may be more likely than players in other sports, except baseball and hockey, to die from "commotio cordis," a heart-stopping condition triggered by being hit in the chest.
USA Today has reported on the risk of concussions in high school sports and Tom Wyrwich of The Seattle Times has written about high school football players who sustain repeated concussions and suffer from a rare condition – almost unheard of in adults – called second-impact syndrome. This year, Washington passed what may be the country's most rigorous law protecting young athletes from severe brain injuries. It requires that when an athlete has suffered an apparent brain injury – whether in a game or practice – he or she cannot return to play without the approval of a licensed medical professional, which includes certified athletic trainers. (Full text of the law) In July, Harborview Medical Center launched the new Seattle Sports Concussion Program, a joint project with the University of Washington Medical Center and Children's Hospital.
Other recent research concludes that football injuries in U.S. high school athletes are more severe during kickoff and punting. The study finds that during football, injuries sustained at the beginning or middle of a game are more severe compared to injuries sustained during the end or in overtime. This finding suggests that the changes of intensity throughout competition influence risk of severe injury. The study, published in Research in Sports Medicine, was done by researchers at the Center for Injury Research and Policy in The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital. The study used data from the 2005-06 National High School Sports Injury Surveillance Study.
National Athletic Trainers' Association, alarmed by the heat-related deaths of at least 29 football players since 1995, this summer released a consensus statement that includes comprehensive recommendations on heat-acclimatization guidelines that appears in the June 2009 issue of the Journal of Athletic Training. Among the recommendations: "During the first five days of the heat-acclimatization process, athletes may not participate in more than one practice per day." The Dallas Morning News surveyed area schools at the beginning of this month and found that few were following heat guidelines.
Further resources
Nationwide Children's Hospital Sports Medicine Department
- Videos on preventing sports injuries
- Resources, including sports medicine library, news, sport-specific information, explanation of why sports injuries in young athletes are different from those in adults, and more
- Dawn Comstock, Ph.D., runs the National High School Sports-Related Injury Surveillance Study. Using an Internet-based data collection tool, certified athletic trainers from U.S. high schools report athletic exposure and injury data for athletes participating in 18 sports. The site includes summary reports of data, cites relevant papers about the research and more related information.
Children's National Medical Center has information about its clinical research to help kids with concussions heal faster and better through the Safe Concussion Outcome Recovery (SCORE) program, as well as a list of researchers who specialize in traumatic brain injury.
Resources about traumatic brain injury caused by sports from Brainline.org, a WETA (public broadcasting group) Web site funded by the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center through a contract with the Henry M. Jackson Foundation.
American Academy of Pediatrics' Council on Sports Medicine and Fitness and Council on School Health
One possible reason for more treatment of school-related sports injuries, according to researchers, is less availability of school nurses. Perhaps someone from the National Association of School Nurses would comment.
Conference will target youth sports injuries: The Sports Medicine Jamboree will be Aug. 28 at the University of Florida.
AHCJ resources
Brain damage caused by football is cumulative
‘Playing through’ concussions is damaging
Traumatic Brain Injury: Impact, mechanism, therapeutic opportunities
Tip Sheet: Concussions in young athletes
Link: Sports Concussion Institute
Link: University of Pittsburgh Sports Medicine Concussion Program
Journal articles
The International Olympic Committee's Medical Commission has developed an approach to training the elite child athlete, including exercise prescription, psychological training, nutritional guidelines and special considerations. The paper is available in the March 2008 issue of the British Journal of Sports Medicine (Br J Sports Med 2008;42:163–164).
Injuries in Youth Soccer: A Subject Review: Committee on Sports Medicine and Fitness; Pediatrics 105: 659-661. March 2000
Risk of Injury From Baseball and Softball in Children: Committee on Sports Medicine and Fitness; Pediatrics 107: 782-784. April 2001
Survey of the Injury Rate for Children in Community Sports: Marirose A. Radelet, Scott M. Lephart, Elaine N. Rubinstein, and Joseph B. Myers; Pediatrics 110: e28. September 2002
Cheerleading-Related Injuries to Children 5 to 18 Years of Age: United States, 1990–2002: Brenda J. Shields, and Gary A. Smith; Pediatrics 117: 122-129. January 2006
Sports-Related Injuries Among High School Athletes—United States, 2005-06 School Year JAMA. 2006;296:2673-2674. MMWR. 2006;55:1037-1040
Sport and recreation-related injuries and fracture occurrence among emergency department attendees: implications for exercise prescription and injury prevention. Falvey EC, Eustace J, Whelan B, Molloy MS, Cusack SP, Shanahan F, Molloy MG. Emerg Med J. 2009 Aug;26(8):590-5. PMID: 19625558 [PubMed – in process] Related Articles
More recent scholarly articles about sports injuries in children.
