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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
Jingzhen (Ginger) Yang, Health Behavior and Health Education, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chase Hall, CB #7505, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7505, 919-966-2251, jzyang@email.unc.edu, Steve Marshall, PhD, The injury prevention research center, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Campus Box 7505, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7050, and Frederick O. Mueller, PhD, Injury Prevention Research Center, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chase Hall CB #7505, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7505.
Objective To examine the injuries sustained by North Carolina high school female athletes in 6 selected sports.
Method The study utilized data collected on 12 sports in 100 NC high schools from 1996-1999. Information was collected on female athlete injuries and their practice/game participation during the regular season, and examined by type of injury. The type of injury was classified as abrasion, laceration, sprain, strain, dislocation, fracture, concussion and other. Injury rate was calculated as the number of injuries divided by the total of athlete’s practices/games in a specific sport multiplied by 100, 000.
Results Among 8 types of injuries, sprains were most common (36.88%), followed by strains (19.41%), fractures (14.38%) and abrasions (13.32%). Sprains were the most common injuries in games, with a rate of 86.66 per 100,000 athlete-exposures, 95%CI=75.25, 98.07), while strains were the most common injuries in practices (21.73 per 100,000 athlete-exposures, 95%CI=17.31, 26.16). In practice, soccer had the highest rate of fractures (140.15 per 100,000 athlete-exposures), track and softball were highest in strains (51.13 and 40.65), and volleyball, basketball and cheerleading in sprains (29.75, 26.08, 16.84, respectively). In games, sprains were the most common injuries in basketball (146.46), soccer (129.44), softball (78.06), volleyball (50.81) and cheerleading (21.55). Track had the highest strain game injury (100.48 per 100,000 athlete-exposures).
Conclusion The findings suggest that type of injuries differ in sports during games and practices. The information provided would be helpful in developing and implementing effective training strategies to prevent and control injuries among female school athletes.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Injury Prevention, Adolescent Health
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.