| High school football is an extremely popular sport in the United States and is growing in popularity. There are an estimated 1.5 million high school football participants nationwide on school sponsored teams. Due to the nature of the game, football is not without risk of injury. It is estimated that between 200,000 to 500,000 injuries occur each year to high school football players. The medical literature is full of reports since 1933 that report the types and frequencies of injuries in high school football players. There are several limitations, in these studies, however. Many of these studies use different methods of calculating injury rates and different definitions of a reportable injury, and therefore, it is difficult to compare the rates to one another. Second, no previous studies have simultaneously examined multiple risk factors for injury. In addition, risk factors for injury in middle school players have not been studied.; This study consisted of a two-year prospective investigation of risk factors for injury in approximately 1,300 middle school and high school football players in the Oklahoma City School District. The players were between 11 and 19 years of age. Physical measurements and demographic information were collected on every player at the beginning of both the 1998 and 1999 football seasons. Injuries were then collected prospectively during both seasons. A standardized form captured basic information about the type of injury and the circumstances in which the injury occurred. At the end of each season, the physical and demographic characteristics of injured players were compared to uninjured players to determine which variables influenced risk. The relationship between growth and risk of injury was also assessed in a subset of returning football players.; The results demonstrated that the physical characteristics of both middle school and high school players were not significantly associated with the risk of injury. Among middle school players, increasing playing experience was significantly associated with the risk of injury. Increasing age was significantly related to the risk of fractures.; Among high school football players, increasing playing experience and a history of injury the previous season was significantly associated with the risk of injury, regardless of the type of injury. Linemen were shown to be at the highest risk of injury and were more likely to sustain a season ending injury compared to players at other positions. In middle school players, a higher proportion of injuries occurred to those who were undergoing the greatest amount of growth in the upper quartiles of change in height and body mass index. However, this was not a significantly different finding.; Overall, the results of this study identified no single physical or athletic risk factor that could be modified to reduce the overall risk of injury in these players. This suggests that football injury prevention is much more complex than originally appreciated, even at the youth level. |
