228326 A national representative multi-sport study of ACL injuries sustained by high school athletes in the US, 2007-09 school years

Monday, November 8, 2010 : 9:10 AM - 9:30 AM

Natalie McIlvain, BS , Center for Injury Research and Policy, The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, OH
Allan Joseph , Center of Injury Research and Policy, Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, OH
Christy L. Collins, MA , Center for Injury Research and Policy, The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, OH
R. Dawn Comstock, PhD , Center for Injury Research and Policy, The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, OH
  
Purpose: Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries impose physical, emotional, and economic burdens on United States (US) high school athletes and their families. Our objective was to investigate the epidemiology of ACL injuries by sport and gender.

Methods: Using an internet-based data collection tool, RIOTM, certified athletic trainers from 100 nationally representative US high schools reported athletic exposure and injury data for athletes from nine sports during the 2007-09 academic years.

Results: During the study period 267 ACL injuries occurred during 4,190,259 athletic-exposures (AE) for an injury rate of 6.4 per 100,000 AE. Nationally, an estimated 80,241 ACL injuries occurred among US high school athletes. The injury rate was higher in competition (17.6) than practice (2.2) (RR=7.90, 95% CI: 6.00-10.40). Girls' soccer had the highest injury rate (11.5) followed by boys' football (10.4) with girls' volleyball (2.2) and boys' baseball (0.5) having the lowest rates. In gender comparable sports, girls had a higher rate (8.2) than boys (2.7) (RR=3.09, 95% CI: 2.07-4.59). Overall 67.4% of ACL injuries required surgery. The most common mechanisms of injury were player to player contact (47.7%) and no contact (32.8%). Player to player contact was the most common mechanism in football, wrestling, boys' soccer and softball while no contact was the most common in boys' basketball, girls' basketball, girls' soccer and baseball.

Conclusions: ACL injury rates and patterns vary by sport, gender and type of exposure. Identifying such differences is important for the development of evidence-based, targeted prevention efforts.

Learning Objectives:
At the conclusion of the session, the participant (learner) in this session will be able to: 1. Understand why ACL injuries are of particular concern among US high school athletes 2. Identify the most common mechanism in which ACL injuries occur among US high school athletes 3. Explain the importance of being able to identify differences in ACL injuries by sport, gender, and type of exposure.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: help analyze High School RIO (TM) data for injury prevention measures.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

Back to: 3041.0: Recreational injuries in at-risk populations