Injuries in Youth Football: National Emergency Department Visits during 2001-2005 for Young and Adolescent Players

Abstract

Objectives: Limited research exists describing youth football injuries, and many of these are confined to specific regions or communities. The authors describe U.S. pediatric football injury patterns receiving emergency department (ED) evaluation and compare injury patterns between the younger and older youth football participants.Methods: A retrospective analysis of ED data on football injuries was performed using the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System-All Injury Program. Injury risk estimates were calculated over a 5-year period (2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005) using participation data from the National Sporting Goods Association. Injury types are described for young (7-11 years) and adolescent (12-17 years) male football participants.Results: There were an estimated total of 1,060,823 visits to U.S. EDs for males with football-related injuries. The most common diagnoses in the younger group (7-11 years) were fracture ⁄ dislocation (29%), sprain ⁄ strain (27%), and contusion (27%). In the older group (ages 12-17 years), diagnoses included sprain ⁄ strain (31%), fracture ⁄ dislocation (29%), and contusion (23%). Older participants had a significantly higher injury risk of injury over the 5-year study period: 11.0 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 9.2 to 12.8) versus 6.1 (95% CI = 4.8 to 7.3) per 1,000 participants ⁄ year. Older participants had a higher injury risk across all categories, with the greatest disparity being with traumatic brain injury (TBI), 0.8 (95% CI = 0.6 to 1.0) versus 0.3 (95% CI = 0.2 to 0.4) per 1,000 participants ⁄ year.Conclusions: National youth football injury patterns are similar to those previously reported in community and cohort studies. Older participants have a significantly higher injury risk, especially with TBI.ACADEMIC EMERGENCY MEDICINE 2009; 16:243-248 ª

Historical Parallel Evolution of Injury Prevention and Control Science and Emergency Medicine

“…Not only does EM contribute to the database through its clinical work, but researchers within the specialty have been consumers of the data and utilize it to further describe injury patterns. [9][10][11] Another injury surveillance database that EM contributes to is the Crash Outcome Data Evaluation System (CODES) database that is maintained by NHTSA. 12 It is a statewide population-based probabilistic linkage of police reports on motor vehicle crash (MVC), EMS, and hospital ⁄ ED data.…”

Surveillance of paediatric traumatic brain injuries using the NEISS: Choosing an appropriate case definition

“…For example, some studies identify a case as a TBI if the body part coded is the head and the diagnosis is coded as a concussion or an internal organ injury [6,14,15], while others use the more inclusive definition of body part head and a diagnosis of concussion, internal organ injury or fracture [9][10][11][12][13]. To the authors' knowledge, only one peer-reviewed study has investigated the definition of TBI used in NEISS data analyses [16].…”

“…The National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS) collects data on injuries presenting to US Emergency Departments (EDs) and serves as a data source for many national-level injury studies and surveillance which study TBI or include estimates of TBIs [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15]. Because the NEISS does not use ICD-9-CM coding, but instead uses its own unique coding system that provides a separate diagnosis code and body part code for each injury [7], the CDC ICD-9-CM TBI definition is not applicable.…”

Validity of Soccer Injury Data from the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Injury Surveillance System

“…2 Currently, several surveillance systems in the United States are used to examine sport injuries. Systems collecting information on severe sport injuries in the general population include the emergency department-based system operated by the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission, known as the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System-All Injury Program (NEISS-AIP), 3 and the catastrophic injury registry operated by the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research. 4 For less severe injuries, attention has typically been focused on specific settings (eg, high school or collegiate), and injury data are often collected by certified athletic trainers (ATs).…”