Youth Football Injuries: A Prospective Cohort

Area of Science:

• Sports Medicine
• Pediatric Sports Injury
• Biomechanics of Football

Background:

• Millions of youth participate in American football, yet injury rates are not well-documented.
• Existing research shows a wide range of reported injury incidence, from 2.3% to 30.4% per season.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare injury rates, severe injuries, and concussion incidence between youth tackle football and flag football.
• To analyze factors influencing time loss due to injury in youth football players.

Main Methods:

• A cohort study involving 3794 youth football players (grades 2-7) across three leagues.
• Utilized electronic reporting systems for attendance and injuries, analyzing deidentified player data.
• Employed Poisson and logistic regression for injury rate and severity analysis, and Cox regression for time-to-injury analysis.

Main Results:

• Tackle football demonstrated a significantly lower hazard ratio for overall injury compared to flag football (0.45; P = .0065).
• Rates of severe injuries and concussions per exposure were not significantly different between tackle and flag football.
• Concussions were more frequent during games than practices, and older players (grades 6-7) had a higher likelihood of concussion.

Conclusions:

• Youth tackle football is associated with a lower overall injury risk than flag football.
• Severe injuries and concussion rates do not differ significantly between tackle and flag football formats.
• Game play and older age increase concussion risk in youth football.