142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition

Annual Meeting Recordings are now available for purchase

308637
Risk-Prone Pitching Activities and Injuries in a National Sample of Youth Baseball Pitchers

142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition (November 15 - November 19, 2014): http://www.apha.org/events-and-meetings/annual
Tuesday, November 18, 2014 : 5:15 PM - 5:30 PM

Jingzhen Yang, PhD, MPH , College of Public Health, Kent State University, Kent, OH
Barton Mann, PhD , American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine, Rosemont, IL
Joseph Guettler, MD , Performance Orthopedics, Troy, MI
Jeffrey Dugas, MD , American Sports Medicine Institute, Birmingham, AL
James Irrgang, PhD , University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA
Glenn Fleisig, PhD , American Sports Medicine Institute, Birmingham, AL
John Albright, MD , University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA
Objectives: High pitching volume, coupled with limited recovery, often leads to arm fatigue, thus placing young pitchers at a greater risk for elbow and shoulder problems. This study aimed to correlate pitching-related risk factors with both increased pitching-related arm problems and injuries. Methods: A national survey recruited 754 youth pitchers, ages 9 to 18, pitching in organized baseball leagues during the past 12 months. Self-reported risk-prone pitching activities were compared with recommendations by the American Sports Medicine Institute. Relationships between self-reported pitching activities, shoulder and elbow problems, and injuries were assessed using multivariable logistic regression. Results: Of the 754 participating pitchers, 43.4% pitched on consecutive days, 30.7% pitched on multiple teams with overlapping seasons, and 19.0% pitched multiple games per day during the 12 months prior to the study. Pitchers who engaged in these activities had increased risk of pitching-related arm pain (OR=2.53, 1.85, and 1.89, respectively). Nearly 70% of the sample reported throwing curveballs, which was associated with 1.66 greater odds of experiencing arm pain while throwing. Pitching-related arm tiredness and arm pain were associated with increased risk of pitching-related injuries. Specifically, those who often pitched with arm tiredness and arm pain had 7.88 and 7.50 greater odds of pitching-related injury, respectively. However, pitching on a travel baseball team, playing baseball exclusively, and playing catcher were not associated with arm problems. Conclusions: The results of this study reinforce the importance of avoiding risk-prone pitching activities in order to prevent pitching-related injuries among youth pitchers.

Learning Areas:

Epidemiology
Public health or related education
Public health or related laws, regulations, standards, or guidelines

Learning Objectives:
identify the pitching activities that are associated with increased risk of the shoulder and elbow injuries among youth baseball pitchers. describe the relationships between arm pain/tiredness and pitching-related arm injuries. discuss the recommendations made by the American Sports Medicine Institute regarding specific risk-prone pitching activities that youth baseball pitchers should avoid.

Keyword(s): Youth

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am a sports injury researcher and have been a PI or co-PI of multiple federally and locally funded grants focusing on sports injury among youth and adolescents. Overuse injuries among baseball pitchers is one of areas of my research interest.
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: 4432.0: Recreational injuries