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Mayo Clinic in
Rochester
Thursday, April 11,
2002
Injuries Uncommon in
Youth Football, Mayo Clinic Study Reports
ROCHESTER, MINN. -- A
Mayo Clinic study of youth football showed that most injuries that
occurred were mild, older players appeared to be at a higher risk
and that no significant correlation exists between body weight and
injury.
The study, which
appears in the April issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings, found that
the data for athletes grades four through eight indicated that the
risk of injury in youth football does not appear greater than the
risk associated with other recreational or competitive sports.
"Our analysis showed
that youth football injuries are uncommon," said Michael J. Stuart,
M.D., a Mayo Clinic orthopedic surgeon and the principal author of
the study.
Dr. Stuart and his
colleagues studied 915 players aged 9 to 13 years, who participated
on 42 football teams in the fall of 1997. Injury incidence,
prevalence and severity were calculated for each grade level and
player position. Additional analyses examined the number of injuries
according to body weight.
A game injury was
defined as any football-related ailment that occurred on the field
during a game that kept a player out of competition for the reminder
of the game, required the attention of a physician, and included all
concussion, lacerations, as well as dental, eye and nerve injuries.
The researchers found a total of 55 injuries occurred in games
during the season — a prevalence of six percent. Incidence of injury
expressed as injury per 1,000 player-plays was lowest in the fourth
grade (.09 percent), increased for the fifth, sixth and seventh
grades (.16 percent, .16 percent, .15 percent respectively) and was
highest in the eighth grade (.33 percent).
Most of the injuries
were mild and the most common type was a contusion, which occurred
in 33 players. Four injuries (fractures involving the ankle growth
plate) were such that they prevented players from participating for
the rest of the season. No player required hospitalization or
surgery.
The study’s authors
said risk increases with level of play (grade in school) and player
age. Older players in the higher grades are more susceptible to
football injuries. The risk of injury for an eighth-grade player was
four times greater than the risk of injury for a fourth-grade
player. Potential contributing factors include increased size,
strength, speed and aggressiveness. Analysis of body weight
indicated that lighter players were not at increased risk for
injury, and in fact heavier players had a slightly higher prevalence
of injury. This trend was not statistically significant. Running
backs are at greater risk when compared with other football
positions, the researchers reported.
Other authors who
contributed to the study include: Michael A. Morrey, Ph.D., Aynsley
M. Smith, RN, Ph.D., John K. Meis, M.S., all from the Mayo Clinic
Sports Medicine Center and Cedric J. Ortiguera, M.D., a Mayo Clinic
orthopedic surgeon in Jacksonville, Fla.
Mayo Clinic
Proceedings is a peer-reviewed and indexed general internal medicine
journal, published for 75 years by Mayo Foundation, with a
circulation of 130,000 nationally and internationally.
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Contact:
John Murphy
507-538-1385 (days)
507-284-2511 (evenings)
e-mail: newsbureau@mayo.edu
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