Middle school injuries: a 20-year (1988-2008) multisport evaluation

Area of Science:

• Sports Medicine
• Epidemiology
• Adolescent Health

Background:

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

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze overall, practice, and game injury rate patterns in 29 middle school sports.
• To compare injury rates between sexes in matched sports.

Main Methods:

• A descriptive epidemiology study analyzed 20 years of injury data (1988-2008).
• Data included 8,078 boys and 5,960 girls across 14-15 sports.
• Certified athletic trainers collected injury status and athlete-exposures (AEs); incidence rates per 1000 AEs were calculated.

Main Results:

• Football had the highest overall and time-loss injury rates (16.03 and 8.486 per 1000 AEs).
• Girls had higher injury rates than boys in sex-matched sports (7.686 vs. 6.684 per 1000 AEs).
• Girls sustained more injuries during practices (3.30/1000 AEs) than games (1.67/1000 AEs), while boys' rates were similar.

Conclusions:

• Middle school sports injuries are more common in practices than games and higher for girls than boys.
• Tendinitis accounted for 19.1% of injuries, suggesting a need for targeted conditioning programs.