Over 5 million high school sports injuries in 4-year period

Among high school athletes in the United States, more than 5.2 million injuries occurred from 2015 to 2019, according to research presented this month at a meeting of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.

The researchers reported that the injury rate overall has declined since the last such report, in 2006, but they noted that injuries have become more severe and the number of injuries to the head and neck has increased by 10 percent.

The findings were based on data from 100 U. S. high schools, considered a nationally representative sample. Most high school sports injuries occurred during competitions, rather than practices, and more often in boys' sports than girls' sports, the researchers said.

Football had the most injuries ( 44 percent), followed by girls' soccer and boys' wrestling.

The head was the most injured body site ( 24 percent), followed by ankles and then knees. Sprains and strains were the most common diagnosis, representing almost 37 percent of injuries, while concussions accounted for about 22 percent.

Roughly 6 percent of injuries required surgery, led by those that occurred with wrestling, then girls' basketball and boys' baseball. Nearly 40 percent of injuries kept student- athletes from participating in their sport for less than a week, but about 20 percent led to teens discontinuing participation in their sport for the season or longer, either voluntarily or because of medical disqualification.

In their report, the researchers noted that more than half of all high school students participate in organized sports, and they urged the development of more and better sport- specific preventive strategies to protect youths from injury.