Sports increases risk level for kids
Q: My 12-year-old would like to play football but I am very worried about him getting hurt because he is not very heavy. Aren’t lighter players more likely to get hurt and are injuries common? A: Statistics are like minor surgery – minor surgery happens to people you don’t know. It doesn’t matter what the odds are on getting hurt if your son is the one who is hurt. There is no comfort on saying: “Wow. The odds of him breaking his leg were 1:10,000.”
A Mayo Clinic study of youth football showed that most injuries were mild, that older players appeared to be at a higher risk and that no significant correlation exists between body weight and injury. The study, which appeared in the April issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings, used data for athletes in grades four through eight.
The data 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 Dr. Michael Stuart, a Mayo Clinic orthopedic surgeon and principal author of the study. Stuart and his colleagues studied 915 players, aged 9 to 13 years old, 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.
The authors said risk increases with level of play (grade in school) and player age. In fact, the risk of injury for an eighth-grader was four times greater than the risk of injury for a fourth-grader.
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. But the difference is not statistically significant. Running backs are at greater risk when compared with other football positions, the researchers reported.
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