Concussions make up almost half of all injuries children sustain during recreational sports, a new study finds.
Published in Plos One in May, researchers tracked injuries from over 1,500 young athletes who played at a recreational sports facility in Hillsborough County, Florida. They tracked boys and girls playing football, soccer and softball.
While minor injuries from basic bumps, bruises and scrapes were noted, the researchers focused on injuries that kept children from continuing to play or practice for at least a day after the injury occurred.
Of the 26 injuries severe enough to qualify, 12 were concussions.
The young athletes would either collide with each other head to head or with the ground, resulting in concussions. Concussions are a serious health hazard and not treating them as such can be potentially fatal.
APHA member Karen Liller, PhD, lead author of the study, said that the research shows the importance of taking a closer look at sports injuries among 5- to 11-year-olds, as they are a understudied demographic.
“There’s this myth out there that children in this age group don’t play hard enough or fast enough to get seriously injured,” she told The Nation’s Health. “And they absolutely do.”
While Liller says that there is a “win at all costs” mentality to sports culture that may lead to an underreporting of injuries, the research is not meant to deter parents from allowing their children to play sports.
“Sports are a wonderful opportunity to learn team work, cooperation and to make friends and have fun,” said Liller, who is a professor specializing in public health and injury prevention at the University of South Florida’s College of Public Health. “We just want them to play safely.”
There may not be an easy answer to the concussion problem, but Liller said there are ways to reduce harm. Primarily, she recommends that schools and recreational sports facilities employ a certified athletic trainer to help identify and treat injuries.
Education for parents and coaches can also make a difference. Athletes of all ages need to be removed from activity when a concussion is suspected. Through its Heads Up initiative, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offers resources on preventing youth concussions for parents, coaches, school employees and health care providers. CDC and the American Academy of Pediatrics offer free online trainings for coaches aimed at reducing and treating concussions in children.
The new study, which followed children over two years, is meant to be a starting point for investigating sports injuries in children, Liller noted.
“We didn’t know what we would find,” Liller said. “But I knew from my experiences with my children that these injuries must be out there. They got hurt, their friends would get hurt. But we didn’t know the numbers.”
For more information on the study, visit https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0216217. For more information on CDC’s Heads Up initiative, visit www.cdc.gov/headsup.
- Copyright The Nation’s Health, American Public Health Association
