High school sports and head and spinal cord injuries

¶ … High School Sports Head and spinal cord injury

Dompier, T., Powell, J., Barron, M., & Moore, M. (2007). Time-loss and non-time-loss injuries in youth football players. Journal of Athletic Training, 42(3), 395-402.

Retrieved November 6, 2009, from Platinum Periodicals. (Document ID: 1364035361).

High school football is one of the most popular secondary school sports for athletes and spectators alike. Homecoming games are enthusiastically attended by alumni, and draw attention to the school population as a whole. Football is also a sport with a great deal of attraction for students wishing to obtain an athletic scholarship and to improve their chances of getting into a competitive college. Unfortunately, football is also one of the most deadly sports, and one of the sports most prone to cause long-lasting damage in student athletes. Even on the level of youth participation, high school football has its risks: 8% of youth football players (age range = 5 to 14 years) are severely injured each year, resulting in more than 187-000 emergency room visits. Thus, in attempting to address the needs of ninth graders on the football field, it is important to understand that many will enter a sports program already having sustained a potentially serious injury. Trying to prevent further, more severe injuries is critical.

In the article, "Time-loss and non-time-loss injuries in youth football flayers" from the Journal of Athletic Training (Dompier et all 2007) the authors studied 779 players, including 296 in grades four and five; 203 in grade six; 188 in grade seven; and 92 in grade eight. Regarding time-loss (TL) and non-time-loss (NTL) injury patterns across age groups in youth football players, a total of 474 injuries and 26, 565 exposures to injuries were identified. Injuries were reported by 36.5% of the players, with 14.4% reporting more than one injury. 58.6% of all injuries were NTL. Non-time-loss injuries accounted for 70.1% of the injuries reported by fourth and fifth graders, 55.1% by sixth graders, 64.0% by seventh graders, but only 33.8% by eighth graders. "Of the 31 injuries to the head, 13 (41.9%) were classified as neurologic (mild traumatic brain injury), whereas 8 were contusions, 3 were wounds, 6 were classified other, and 1 was classified as heat illness. One non-catastrophic fracture was documented for the neck and spine" (Dompier et al. 2007).

With the age of the players, the capacity for more severe injuries increased, indicating an increase in the intensity of play. The strong disparity between seventh and eighth grade student NTL injuries in particular shows how added competitive intensity resulted in injuries of a more severe and longer duration -- including the risk of head and spinal injuries. A comparative study of high school and football players found that the proportion of NTL injuries (58.6%) for the under age thirteen players was similar to that reported for high school football players (61%) and lower than for collegiate athletes (76%). Unfortunately, it was not documented if injury risk rose correspondingly higher as high school players proceeded from freshman to JV to Varsity-level football. Regardless, the statistics indicated that even for freshman-level football, the presence of trained first aid staff is essential at practices and games. The game injury rate was 30.5 and the practice injury rate was 15.1 in high school, also indicating that the added intensity of game time increased levels of carelessness and risk.