Youth Injury Statistics

The information outlined below was taken directly from the STOP Sports Injury website, and the sources for the statistics are referenced at the end of the post. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC), participation in organized sports is on the rise. Nearly 30 million children and adolescents participate in youth sports in the United States. This increase in play has led to some other startling statistics about injuries among America's young athletes:

• High school athletes account for an estimated 2 million injuries and 500,000 doctor visits and 30,000 hospitalizations each year.1

• More than 3.5 million kids under age 14 receive medical treatment for sports injuries each year.1

• Children ages 5 to 14 account for nearly 40 percent of all sports-related injuries treated in hospitals. On average the rate and severity of injury increases with a child's age.4

• Overuse injuries are responsible for nearly half of all sports injuries to middle and high school students2

• Although 62 percent of organized sports-related injuries occur during practice, one-third of parents do not have their children take the same safety precautions at practice that they would during a game.2

• Twenty percent of children ages 8 to 12 and 45 percent of those ages 13 to 14 will have arm pain during a single youth baseball season.3

• Injuries associated with participation in sports and recreational activities account for 21 percent of all traumatic brain injuries among children in the United States.4

• According to the CDC, more than half of all sports injuries in children are preventable.

• By age 13, 70 percent of kids drop out of youth sports. The top three reasons: adults, coaches and parents.2

• Among athletes ages 5 to 14, 28 percent of percent of football players, 25 percent of baseball players, 22 percent of soccer players, 15 percent of basketball players, and 12 percent of softball players were injured while playing their respective sports4

• Since 2000 there has been a fivefold increase in the number of serious shoulder and elbow injuries among youth baseball and softball players.4

References:

1.JS Powell, KD Barber Foss, 1999. Injury patterns in selected high school sports: a review of the 1995-1997 seasons. J Athl Train. 34: 277-84.
2.Safe Kids USA Campaign Web site. 2009.
3.American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. 2009.
4.Preserving the Future of Sport: From Prevention to Treatment of Youth Overuse Sports Injuries. AOSSM 2009 Annual Meeting Pre-Conference Program. Keystone, Colorado.

STOP Sports Injuries: A National Effort

Little did Luke and I know when we began to develop our injury screening and prevention program, that there was a current national campaign to help prevent athletic overuse and trauma injuries in kids. This campaign launched in April is the Sports Trauma and Overuse Prevention (STOP) campaign, also referred to as STOP Sports Injuries. This is a collaborative effort between multiple organizations, but the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine (AOSSM) is the driving force behind the effort. All involved organizations are committed to changing the current culture of youth sports that has injury rates nearing epidemic proportions.

STOP stands for Sports, Trauma and Overuse Prevention. While everyone acknowledges that injuries are an expected, if not unfortunate, byproduct of sports participation, this movement targets those injuries that can be prevented. The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS)reports that overuse injuries account for nearly half of all injuries sustained by middle school and high school athletes. The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) estimates that half of such overuse injuries are preventable. With the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimating that high school athletes alone account for approximately 2 million injuries per year, this means that nearly 500,000 injuries could be prevented annually, just within the high school population.

The most common injuries affecting kids in sports are not unfamiliar. In the lower half of the body, anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tears in the knee are the primary culprit, particularly in running and cutting sports. The most common serious overuse injury in overhead athletes occurs in baseball: the tear of the ulnar collateral ligament, the ligament that reinforces the inner aspect of the elbow. Disruption of the ligament requires reconstruction, now commonly known as Tommy John surgery, so named for the first professional pitcher who underwent the procedure. While these two examples may represent more extreme injuries that require surgery, there are many other types of injuries, especially of the "itis" variety (such as tendinitis and bursitis), which can be equally disabling. Chronic pain over an extended period of time can lead to long-term consequences for youth athletes including eventual exclusion from sports altogether.

According to AOSSM, the key to combating this trend in increased sports injuries is education. Recognition of early injury-warning signs is the responsibility of coaches and parents. Encouraging open communication among all parties so that a child can speak comfortably about an injury without fear of retaliation, like being benched or removed from a team, is critical. But there are also training elements that factor into injury prevention. Pre-participation physicals along with proper nutrition and hydration are critical. Cross-training and rest are just as important as sport-specific training in an athlete's success. To that end, maintaining a diverse sports schedule is one of the many tools being recommended by those involved in this campaign.

The initiative not only raises awareness and provides education on injury reduction, but also highlights how playing safe and smart can enhance and extend a child's athletic career, improve teamwork, reduce obesity rates and create a lifelong love of exercise and healthy activity. The message underscores the problems of overuse and trauma and emphasizes the expertise of our coalition of experts.

The above information was taken directly from the STOP website. For more information about the STOP Sports Injuries Campaign, visit their website at:

http://www.stopsportsinjuries.org/

Keys to Prevention of Knee Injuries

As therapists, we know our role is to treat and return athletes as quickly as possible to their sport. With starting a new practice and doing some soul searching, we came to the conclusion that it is great to help athletes after they are injured, but what about helping prevent these injuries and their serious long-term implications altogether? This led us to doing research and developing an injury screening program to help identify those athletes at risk and train them in strategies for prevention. Below, I included exerts from one of many excellent research studies focusing on identification of athletes at risk for injury and training strategies for prevention. I feel this gives a great synopsis of the problem we are facing and where some of the research is taking us on prevention.

"Female athletes are currently reported to be 4 to 6 times more likely to sustain a sports related non-contact ACL injury than male athletes in comparable high-risk sports. The established links between lower limb mechanics and non-contact anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury risk led to the development of neuromuscular training interventions designed to prevent ACL injury by targeting deficits identified in specific populations. Injury prevention protocols have resulted in positive
preventative and biomechanical changes in female athletic populations at high risk for knee injury. There is evidence that neuromuscular training not only reduces the levels of potential biomechanical risk factors for ACL injury, but also decreases knee and ACL injury incidence in female athletes."

Information taken from: Myer et al "Trunk and Hip Control Neuromuscular Training for the Prevention of Knee Joint Injury" Clin Sports Med. 2008. July

Factors that contribute to lower body injury:
• Center of mass away from the foot (decreased trunk control)
• Knee abduction (ligament dominance)
• Low hip and knee flexion (quadriceps dominance)
• Single leg weight bearing (leg dominance)

Jumping/landing cues:
• Land with feet hip width
• Land soft with quiet impact (hip/knee flexion)
• Land with both feet at the same time and even weight distribution
• Land with an erect trunk
• Land on toes and absorb through mid-foot
• Perform each exercise with partner feedback for perfect technique

Soccer ACL injury videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHgu5e9K3Ww&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_Mdm4v-ty8&feature=related

Basketball ACL injury videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1VLN2dlbV0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAzUp_YLVIM

National Physical Therapy Month

October is National Physical Therapy Month. This year's theme will focus on the importance of physical activity for people of all ages and abilities in preventing and combating obesity and its consequences. According to the most recent data, nearly 34% of adults and 17% of children and adolescents are obese. The incidence of type 2 diabetes, which accounts for about 90 - 95% of the 17.9 million diagnosed cases of diabetes, is also increasing as obesity rates climb. Literature increasingly indicates that inactivity and insufficient levels of physical activity are key indicators for health problems such as metabolic syndrome and pre-diabetes.

As health care providers, we play an important role in helping our patients and communities make the commitment to be physically active by providing them with the tools and strategies needed to make fitness fun and facilitate lifestyle changes.

As experts in restoring and improving motion in people's lives, we have the opportunity to educate the people who live and work in our communities about how we can help prevent or manage obesity and its effects by: designing physical activity programs for children and adults that can protect against obesity; devising exercise programs for children and adults with physical disabilities; developing safe and appropriate exercise programs and behavior modification plans for children and adults who are already overweight or obese; and providing a multi-dimensional approach to exercise for people with type 2 diabetes.

The above information was taken directly from the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) website. For more information about the APTA and National Physical Therapy Month, visit their website at:


http://www.apta.org/ or http://www.moveforwardpt.com/