Sports Injury Rate Rising Among Young

At first the concern was about concussions occurring at an increasing rate among young football players. Now the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine (AOSSM) is reporting two trends that members feel are serious. First is that the number of youth injuries is increasing and, second, the fact that young athletes are experiencing injuries at a younger and younger age—injuries that their doctors were more accustomed to seeing in older pros.

Hollie Deese, writing for The Tennessean, quotes Allen Anderson, M.D., an orthopedic surgeon with Saint Thomas West who said, “It is a very big problem now, and education is the key.” He blames the current high risk of youth sports injuries to overuse and a lack of attention paid to proper injury prevention.

“Education is the key, ” Anderson says. The numbers are startling. According to AOSSM‘s data, about 30 million children participate in sports in school. About 2 million of these suffer injuries, 500, 000 visit their doctor about their injuries and 30, 000 require hospitalization.

Deese wrote that there are about 3.5 million kids under the age of 14 who receive medical treatment for sports injuries, “ and children ages 5-14 account for nearly 40% of all sports-related injuries treated in hospitals.”

Anderson said that overuse injuries are responsible for about half of those injuries that occur in middle school and among high school athletes. According to the CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention], at least half of these injuries are preventable. Since the year 2000, there has been a five-time increase in the number of serious elbow injuries among youth baseball and softball players. Anderson terms it as “almost an epidemic now.”

Deese reports that the AOSSM created the STOP Sports Injuries Program in 2010 to help parents and coaches learn more about the prevention, treatment and long-term consequences of overuse and trauma injury among children. Doctors note that “overuse injuries are completely preventable” and their campaign keeps children on the field playing.

David Geier, M.D., an orthopedic surgeon and contributor to the campaign, said that the number of kids suffering injuries and requiring trips to the ER is just too high. “We want kids playing sports because there are so many great aspects, from physical health to the social benefits and teamwork and leadership. But you have to stay healthy enough to actually play sports. And that is the problem. If you push it hard they are going to burn out. And 70% of kids stop playing sports by the age of 13—burnout is one of the biggest reasons for that.”