We studied the incidence of injury in girl's varsity basketball to characterize injury demographics in high school athletics. We defined a reportable injury as one that occurred during organized practice or competition, resulted in either missed practice or game time, required physician consultation, or involved the head or face. We prospectively evaluated the athletes on team rosters during the 1993 to 1994 season from 100 randomly selected Class 4A and 5A Texas public high schools that employed full-time certified athletic trainers. The 890 student athletes from 80 schools ranged in age from 14 to 18 years. Four hundred thirty-six injuries were reported for a rate of 0.49 per athlete per season. Injury risk, calculated on the basis of exposure time, was 0.4% per hour per athlete. Although game time accounted for only 12.5% of exposure time, it represented one half of the total injuries. Sprains and strains (56%) were the most common injuries, followed by contusions (15%) and dental injuries (14%). Injuries to the ankle (31%) and knee (19%) were by far the most common. There were 34 severe injuries defined as requiring surgery or hospitalization, for a rate of 0.038 per athlete per season. Knee injuries were by far the most likely to require surgeries, and ACL injuries accounted for 69% of the severe knee injuries.

This study was undertaken to determine the incidence of injury in high school football based on evaluation of 100 high schools in the State of Texas during a single football season (1989). Certified athletic trainers were the initial medical professionals providing on-site diagnosis and treatment of all injuries. An injury was defined as: 1) an incident causing an athlete to miss all or part of a single practice or game; 2) any incident treated by a physician; and 3) all head injuries reported to the athletic trainer. Data were collected that allowed calculation of the time of exposure to injury per athlete in the sample. There was 75.5% participation in the study by the certified athletic trainers in the 100 schools. A total of 4399 athletes in varsity football programs participated in the study. There were 2228 injuries, as defined in the study, during the period of study, giving an incidence of injury of 0.506 injury per athlete per year. Severe injuries--those requiring hospitalization--were found in 137 cases, for an incidence rate of 0.031 injury per athlete per year. The incidence of reportable defined injury was calculated to be 0.003 injury per hour of exposure per student athlete. The knee was found to be the most commonly injured anatomic site; the ankle ranked second.

Recent publications have reported differences in the incidence, rate, risk, and type of sports injury among men and women. We undertook a prospective study to determine the incidence of injury among high school basketball players and to examine the differences in injury type, incidence, rate, and risk between male and female athletes. During a single basketball season, an injury survey of girls' varsity teams at 100 class 4A and 5A high schools in Texas was conducted. These data were previously reported. We surveyed the same 100 high schools during a subsequent season to gather injury data from the boys' varsity teams. The athletic trainer collected data on each reportable injury and reported the data weekly to the University Interscholastic League. A reportable injury was defined as one that occurred during a practice or a game, resulted in missed practice or game time, required physician consultation, or involved the head or the face. The boys' and girls' data were compared and statistically analyzed. The rate of injury was 0.56 among the boys and 0.49 among the girls. The risk of injury per hour of exposure was not significantly different between the two groups. In both groups, the most common injuries were sprains, and the most commonly injured area was the ankle, followed by the knee. Female athletes had a significantly higher rate of knee injuries including a 3.79 times greater risk of anterior cruciate ligament injuries. For both sexes, the risk of injury during a game was significantly higher than during practice.