People of all ages play sports. Not only are athletics a great way to meet lifelong friends, but they also help us stay in shape and build muscle. However, any time physical activity is involved, injuries will surely follow. Today, we take a look at the demographics of athletic injuries in America.
To get a better understanding of who are suffering sports injuries and what types of injuries they are dealing with, we turn to the National Health Statistics Report which was published earlier this week. The report, published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, examined a number of sports- and recreation-related injuries in the United States over a three-year period.
Sport Injury Stats
Here’s a look at a number of different statistics from the NHS Report:
- 71.8% of people who suffered a sports injury were white, followed by Hispanics (11.2%), African Americans (8.9%) and Non-Hispanic other races (8.1%).
- Males accounted for 61.3% of sports injuries, while females accounted for 38.7%.
- Children between the ages of 5 and 14 had the highest rates of injuries among age groups (37%), followed by 15-24 (27.9%), 25-44 (20.8%) and 45 years old and older (14.3%).
- 50% of reported injuries were treated by the patient or with a visit to the doctor’s office. Another way of saying this is that 50% of injuries healed without the patient needing to visit a hospital or emergency department.
- 42% of injuries involved the lower body; 30.3% involved the upper body, and 16.4% involved the head or neck.
- The most common activities for injury were: General exercise, football, playground activity, gymnastics/cheerleading, and cycling. Basketball, soccer and water sports were also mentioned.
- An estimated 213 million people aged 6 and older took part in sports and fitness activities in 2015, up from 209 million in 2014. In total, athletes suffered roughly 8.6 million injuries each year.
Researchers concluded by saying that they want to continue to study the data to learn more about the injury types and treatment methods in order to best help prevent and treat athletic injuries.
“As the nation continues to recognize the importance of physical activity to maintain health, more research efforts are needed to examine sport and recreation injury across various activities, demographic groups, and health care settings, especially settings other than emergency departments and hospitals.”
