Overuse injuries continue to plague female high school athletes, according to a new study published in The Journal of Pediatrics.
According to the six year, 20 sport study, high school girls are more likely to sustain overuse injuries while playing sports than boys. Researchers said the findings will be useful in developing training regimens to help female athletes stay in shape while avoiding overstressing their bodies.
“Identifying high school athletes at risk of overuse injuries is the first step in working to prevent these injuries,” the authors wrote.
High School Study
According to the study, high school girls sustained 1.88 overuse injuries for every 100,000 athletic events – defined as practices, games or competitions. Comparably, male high school athletes only suffered 1.26 overuse injuries per 100,000 athletic exposures. After looking deeper into the study, researchers uncovered:
- Of the top five most likely sports to cause overuse injuries, girls’ sports account for the top four: Girls’ track and field, girls’ field hockey, girls’ lacrosse and girls’ gymnastics.
- Those four sports accounted for 3.82, 2.93, 2.73 and 2.72 overuse injuries per 100,000 athletic events.
- Soccer was rougher on girls too, as the sport accounted for 1.96 overuse injuries per 100,000, compared to only 1.53 per 100,000 for boys.
- Overuse injuries varied by sport, but lower leg, knee and shoulder overuse injuries were the most common, accounting for 21.8%, 15.9% and 11.5% of all overuse injuries.
Dr. Timothy Hewett, who wasn’t involved in the study, said he has published several of his own studies on why women are more likely to suffer overuse injuries during athletic activities than men. According to Dr. Hewett, women don’t activate their gluteus maximus at the same level as men, despite it being the largest and most powerful muscle in the body. Because of this, women tend to experience an inward collapse of the hip and knee, which leads to patellofemoral pain – the most common overuse injury.
Dr. Hewett said the most recent study expands his knowledge and affirms his previous beliefs.
“We’ve looked mainly at soccer and basketball [in previous studies], said Dr. Hewett. “That girls’ track and field and girls’ field hockey were the highest overuse injuries in sports, that’s definitely new. That hasn’t been out there before.”
Dr. Alex B. Diamond, director of Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s program for injury prevention in youth sports, said the study is “groundbreaking” in terms of helping medical personnel understand the likelihood and prevalence of injury in high school sports.
“It really gives us tangible numbers,” Diamond said. “I think where this study can be really helpful is to begin to provide some real guidance on where we should target our future studies and future efforts in regard to overuse injuries and prevention. I think that’s the beauty of this study.”
Related source: MedPage Today