Low injury rates in elite athletes.
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Implication
Prospective cohort study observes low overall injury rates in elite young athletes across four sports, indicating that intensive youth training does not pose a major short-term health hazard.
Key Points
- To assess the frequency, severity, and potential risk factors of self-reported sports injuries among elite youth athletes across four disciplines over a two-year period.
- Prospective cohort study following 453 elite young athletes (231 boys, 222 girls) aged 8–16 years for two years.
- Tracked self-reported injuries across football (soccer), gymnastics, tennis, and swimming to assess incidence per 1000 training hours, recovery time, sex, and pubertal status.
- Overall injury incidence was low at less than 1 injury per 1000 hours of training, with football presenting the highest injury rate (67%) and swimming the lowest (37%).
- Most injuries (70%) were acute and minor, though overuse injuries required longer recovery than acute injuries (20 vs 13 days overall; 57 vs 16 days in football).
- Injury rates showed no significant association with sex or pubertal status, except in late-puberty female gymnasts, and only 4 of 453 athletes retired due to injury.
Cite This Study
Baxter‐Jones et al. (1993) studied this question.