April is Youth Sports Safety Month

March is ending and National Athletic Training Month (NATM) has come and gone for another year.  As NATM ends, Youth Sports Safety Month (YSSM) begins.  This awareness focus provides a continued opportunity to help youth and adolescents participate in sports safely.  NATM focused on appropriate medical coverage and care for athletes by advocating for athletic trainers, particularly at secondary schools, while YSSM provides a broader focus in youth sports safety.  One organization working to promote YSSM is the Sports Trauma and Overuse Prevention Sports Injuries campaign.  Better known as STOP Sports Injuries, an initiative started by the American Orthopedic Society for Sports Medicine and other key groups in 2007, has worked to prevent injuries of all kinds in young athletes. 

To learn more about what STOP Sports Injuries is doing to promote YSSM, check out THIS link.  The group is encouraging everyone to get involved in YSSM by holding your own event, getting involved in their photo contest and participating in their sports safety tweet chats.  Chats are scheduled for April 10^th and April 24^th.  You can get involved at #SportsSafety, check out their twitter page for more information.  These chats are great ways to connect with experts and other parents who are concerned about protecting their children. 

STOP Sports Injuries is also great for expanding the ideas of safety and prevention beyond the traumatic (and potentially catastrophic) concerns of concussions, exertional heat illness, and sudden cardiac arrest (SCA).  They have resources that bring attention to minimizing overuse injuries in youth athletes, female athlete triad, and sports nutrition as well.  Resources are available based on specific sports, specific issues and for specific stakeholders ranging from parents, athletes, coaches, and health care providers.  For more information, check out the Sports Injury Prevention section of their website. 

STOP Sports Injuries is not the only group does work regularly to make youth sports safer on some level.  If you are a regular reader of this blog, you know A4IA continues to work to educate high school athletes through the ASA® program and other public advocacy.  The continued focus on youth sports safety should continue to educate us all on how we can allow children to take advantage of the positives that come from participating in sports while minimizing the negatives of chronic injuries and the potential for long-term disability.  According to recent information published by the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons (AAOS) the awareness and education is beginning to have a positive effect; for athletes between the age of 5 and 14, sports injuries decreased 12% between 2000 and 2010. 

Some of the other organizations that have gotten involved in the youth sports safety education mission include:

MomsTeam

Youth Sport Safety Alliance

SAFE Kids USA

National Athletic Trainers’ Association

Korey Stringer Institute

Matthew Alan Gfeller Foundation

American Academy of Pediatrics

American Medical Society for Sports Medicine

National Strength and Conditioning Association

Pediatric Orthopedic Society of North America

Sports Physical Therapy Section

This list is not an all-inclusive list of professional organizations and non-profits that have had some role in improving youth sports safety, but it is a sampling of some of the major national organizations.  As always, you are encouraged to get involved in your local community with your local organizations.  With a little help from the Internet, you may find there is a non-profit in your area that is working to improve safety in one way or another.  If you find something, find a way to get involved and make a change in your community.

Submitted by Heather L. Clemons, MS, MBA, ATC

Preventing Overuse Injuries in Youth Athletes

OVERUSE INJURIES IN YOUTH SPORTS

Sports participants of any age can suffer acute or overuse (chronic) injuries.  Acute injuries are those that happen unexpectedly to an otherwise healthy participant; examples include muscle strains, joint sprains, and fractures.  Overuse injuries are those that develop over time because of repetitive stress; examples include tendinitis, stress fractures, and “shin splints.”  Pediatric/adolescent overuse injuries are those repetitive stress injuries that are happening in participants under the age of 18.  There are approximately 30 - 35 million sports participants between the age of 5 - 18 (Soprano & Fuchs, 2007), causing a significant increase in the number of pediatric overuse injuries.  Studies have reported that overuse injures account for an estimated 50% of all athletic injuries, requiring twice as many visits to sports medicine physicians as acute trauma (Cuff, et al., 2010; McLeod, et al., 2011). There are also approximately 2.6 million emergency department visits in the United States for sports-related injuries for those between age 5 -24 years old, with the highest percentage being in males 5 - 14 years old (Soprano & Fuchs, 2007).

There has been significant focus on the prevention of pediatric overuse injuries because of their increasing occurrence and the potential for long-term rehabilitation programs and significant missed participation time (McLeod, 2011).  Youth athletes are participating in sports with developing skeletons leading to the possibility of growth plate injuries such as Osgood-Schlatter’s, Sever’s disease and others (McLeod, 2011; Soprano & Fuchs, 2007).  These conditions can cause significant pain and disability and are best treated by preventing them in the first place.  The exact causes for such repetitive stress injuries are unknown due to lack of research, but suggestions are that injuries can be the result of improper technique, training errors, excessive sport training, and muscle imbalances or weakness (McLeod, 2011).

Focusing on the prevention of these overuse injuries the National Athletic Trainers’ Association issued a position statement (April 2011) in an effort document the best practice to date on the prevention of pediatric overuse injuries.  The position statement addresses the following areas as key steps in preventing overuse injuries:

• Injury surveillance research
• Pre-participation physical examination
• Identify risk factors
• Coach education and medical supervision
• Sport alteration
• Training and conditioning programs
• Sport specialization

Overuse injuries are not life-threatening events, but they can be very painful and debilitating.  It is just as important for parents to understand how to prevent overuse injuries as it is to be prepared for an emergency.  Parents are critical in making sure that their children are getting an appropriate amount of rest and limiting the number of months during a given calendar year that they participate.  The amount of time spent participating in sports in a given calendar year is the biggest controllable risk factor for injury based on available research (Cuff, Loud & O'Riodan, 2010).  Given the growing number of private leagues and the continued availability of school sport programs athletes may also be participating in two sports concurrently.  Appropriate rest is necessary for proper recovery.  Parents should be sure their youth athletes are getting the necessary rest in a given athletics season and calendar year.

While the information provided by the NATA is a good jumping off point for parents, its intended audience is athletic trainers and other health care providers.  This begs the question, what resources are out there for parents who want to learn more about overuse injuries?  STOP Sports Injuries is a campaign and website developed by a coalition of organizations and corporations invested in preventing overuse and traumatic injuries in kids.  I have focused on this particular campaign because of the resources it makes available to parents.  There are educational resources available about a variety of injuries, tip sheets for preventing overuse injuries, and sport specific tip sheets just for starters.  There is also a blog, media resources and a repository of key position statements regarding the care of young athletes.  Simply click on “STOP Sports Injuries” link and look around.

REFERENCES:

Cuff, S., Loud, K., and O'Riodan, M.A. (2010).  Overuse injuries in high school athletes.  Clinical Pediatrics, 49(8):  731 - 736.  Available at http://cpj.sagepub.com/content/49/8/731.

McLeod, T.C., Decoster, L.C., Loud, K.J., Micheli, L.J., Parker, J.T., Sandrey, M.A., and White, C.(2011).  National Athletic Trainers' Association position statement:  Preventing pediatric overuse injuries. Journal of Athletic Training, 46(2):  206-220. Available at http://www.nata.org/sites/default/files/Pediatric-Overuse-Injuries.pdf.

Soprano, J.V. and Fuchs, S.M. (2007).  Common overuse injuries in the pediatric and adolescent athlete.  Clinical Pediatric Emergency Medicine, 8(1):  7 - 14.  Available at http://www.clinpedemergencymed.com/article/S1522-8401(07)00010-9/fulltext.

Submitted by Heather L. Clemons, MS, MBA, ATC