Middle School Injuries: A 20-Year (1988-2008) Multisport Evaluation

Area of Science:

• Sports Medicine
• Epidemiology
• Pediatric Sports Injury

Background:

• Limited data exists on injury incidence in middle school sports.
• Understanding injury patterns is crucial for prevention strategies.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze injury rates in middle school athletes across practices and games.
• To compare injury patterns between boys and girls in sex-matched sports.
• To identify common injury types and severities.

Main Methods:

• Descriptive epidemiology study analyzing 20 years of injury data (1988-2008).
• Included 8,078 boys and 5,960 girls across 29 sports.
• Injury status and athlete-exposures (AEs) were recorded by certified athletic trainers.

Main Results:

• Football had the highest injury rate (16.03/1000 AEs).
• Girls had higher overall (7.686/1000 AEs) and time-loss injury rates (2.944/1000 AEs) than boys (6.684/1000 AEs and 2.702/1000 AEs, respectively).
• Girls experienced higher injury rates during practices (3.30/1000 AEs) versus games (1.67/1000 AEs), while boys' rates were similar.

Conclusions:

• Middle school sports injuries are more common during practices than games.
• Girls in sex-matched sports face a higher risk of injury compared to boys.
• Tendinitis is a prevalent injury (19.1%), suggesting a need for targeted conditioning programs.