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Epidemiology of Injury in High School Sports

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Injury in Pediatric and Adolescent Sports

Abstract

The epidemiology of injury among high school athletes varies by sport. Overall, injury rates vary widely with full-contact sports having the highest injury rates, followed by sports where athlete-athlete contact occurs relatively frequently although too much contact is in violation of the rules of the sport, followed by sports where athlete-athlete contact is rare. Across gender-comparable sports, girls have higher injury rates than boys. While the most commonly injured body sites and most common diagnoses of injury also vary by sport, patterns of specific injury in nearly all sports reflect the intense focus on concussions over the past decade. Targeted injury prevention efforts should be based on an understanding of sport-specific injury rates and patterns as these differences mean more general prevention programs are less likely to be effective.

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Correspondence to R. Dawn Comstock PhD or David A. James DPT, OCS, SCS, CSCS .

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© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

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Comstock, R.D., Dahab, K.S., James, D.A. (2016). Epidemiology of Injury in High School Sports. In: Caine, D., Purcell, L. (eds) Injury in Pediatric and Adolescent Sports. Contemporary Pediatric and Adolescent Sports Medicine. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-18141-7_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-18141-7_4

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-18140-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-18141-7

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