BackgroundOver two million sports-related knee injuries present to US emergency departments annually. Knee injuries frequently require costly surgical repair, and knee sprains are one of the most common injuries in athletes. Thus, understanding injury patterns across the age spectrum is important to identify areas for prevention.MethodsKnee sprain and athlete exposure (AE) data were collected for 20 sports using the High School Reporting Information Online database for high school athletes and the National Collegiate Athletic Association Injury Surveillance Program for college athletes during the 2009/10–2014/15 acdemic years. We report knee sprain rates per 10,000 AEs and rate ratios with 95% confidence intervals (RR; CI).ResultsThe knee sprain rate was higher in college (1.03) than high school (0.35; RR = 2.46, 95% CI: = 2.31–2.61). Sports with the highest rates in college were men’s wrestling (1.21), men’s football (0.66), and women’s soccer (0.61); the highest in high school were boys’ football (0.35), girls’ soccer (0.26), and girls’ gymnastics (0.23). In gender-comparable sports, females had higher rates than males (college RR = 1.70, 95% CI: = 1.40–2.07; high school RR = 2.21, 95% CI: = 1.97–2.48); college men had higher rates of torn cartilage (RR = 4.19, 95% CI: = 3.19–5.51) and PCL injuries (RR = 29.51, 95% CI: = 19.64–44.34) than high school boys; and college women had higher rates of ACL (RR = 2.30, 95% CI: = 1.86–2.85) and PCL (RR = 2.99, 95% CI: = 1.52–5.88) injuries than high school girls. A larger percentage of females in college required surgery (43.0%) vs. high school (34.9%). Player contact was the most common injury mechanism across age groups (55.0% each).ConclusionsIn gender-comparable sports, females at both age levels had higher knee injury rates than males. College athletes had higher knee injury rates than high school athletes, perhaps due to level of play or biological differences. Both sex and age should be considered when developing targeted injury prevention efforts.
Objectives:Lacrosse and ice hockey are fast growing youth sports in the United States. Football remains the most popular and is the leading cause of sports-related injuries among high school students. Injuries remain a concern given the physical nature of these three contact sports. The objective of this study was to compare the rates and patterns of injury in boys’ football, ice hockey, and lacrosse.Methods:We conducted a secondary analysis of High School RIO (Reporting Information Online) data including exposure and injury data collected from a large sample of high schools in the United States from 2005/2006-2015/2016. In High School RIO, athletic trainers submitted exposure and injury information weekly. In this study data was analyzed to calculate rates, assess patterns, and evaluate potential risk factors for player-player contact injuries.Results:A total of 34,532 injuries in boys’ football, ice hockey, and lacrosse occurred during 9,078,902 exposures for a rate of 3.80 injuries per 1,000 AE in the three contact sports of interest. The rate of injury was found to be higher in competition compared to practice for all three sports, with the largest difference in ice hockey (RR = 8.28; 95% CI = 7.74-8.86). In football, 46.6% of injuries were due to tackling or being tackled, 41.1% of injuries in ice hockey and 15.3% of injuries in lacrosse were due to checking or being checked. In football and lacrosse, a greater percentage of injuries were due to being tackled or checked, respectively. Similarly, in ice hockey, a greater percentage of injuries occurred due to being checked compared to checking, but surprisingly the proportion was much higher (81.6% vs 18.4%). In addition, a smaller proportion of hockey athletes injured while being checked were able to return to play in less than a week compared with both being tackled in football (IPR = 0.41) and being checked in lacrosse (IPR = 0.47). A significantly greater proportion of concussions sustained in football were the result of tackling compared to being tackled (28.3% vs 24.8%; IPR = 1.17; 95% CI = 1.11-1.24). Conversely, in ice hockey, a greater proportion of concussions were sustained while being checked compared to checking (33.8% vs. 20.5%; IPR = 1.65; 95% CI = 1.04-2.61). There was a significantly higher concussion rate in competition compared to practice for all three sports with no concussions sustained in ice hockey practice due to checking.Conclusion:While all three sports studied were similar in regards to a higher injury rate associated with being on the receiving end of intentional contact (being tackled or checked), the proportion was much higher in ice hockey and the injured ice hockey players were less likely to return to play in less than one week. Also of note, concussions were sustained equally while tackling and being tackled, however in ice hockey, no concussions were sustained while checking opposing players during practice. Future studies are needed to further investigate these patterns in high school contact athletes, with particular emph...
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.