Achy athletes - injury rates in high school athletics - News Briefs: Health/Fitness

Science World, March 11, 1994 by Chana Freiman

Heads up: Which high school athletes have the highest rate of injury? If you said tough-guy football jocks, guess again. In a recent study, girls' cross-country runners came out on top (see chart).

Surprised? So was chief researcher Stephen Rice. From 1979 to 1992, while working to improve sports-injury management in schools, Rice collected data on 18 high school sports involving 60,000 teen atheletes. He found that for every 1,000 athletic exposures (times athletes practiced or competed) female cross-country runners experienced 17.3 injuries. These included tendinitis of the knee, shin splints, and ankle sprains.

By contrast, male football players had 12.7 injuries per 1,000 athletic exposures--a difference of 36 percent.

Why the high rate among girls? Biology, for one, says Rice. Because heavy exercise is linked with missed menstrual cycles, many young female runners may have low levels of estrogen, a bone-protecting hormone that is normally released throughout the menstrual cycle.

Another factor is over-training. As cross-country becomes more popular, the competition gets fiercer. To keep up, some girls overtrain--without enough rest or a coach's supervision, says Rice. Runners should realize that like football, "cross-country is a contact sport," he adds. Contact with the ground can be just as damaging as body contact, if not more so.

But runners and other atheletics can avoid injury. Rice's advice: "Wear good shoes, run on soft surfaces, get plenty of rest, and eat right."

                   WHICH SPORT HURT MOST?
RANK          SPORT          SEASON         INJURY RATE/1000
                                            ATHLETIC EXPOSURES
 1.  Girls' cross-country     fall                17.3
 2.  Football                 fall                12.7
 3.  Wrestling                winter              11.8
 4.  Girls' soccer            fall                11.6
 5.  Boys' cross-country      fall                10.5
 6.  Girls gymnastics         winter              10.0
 7.  Boys soccer              spring               9.5
 8.  Girls' basketball        winter               7.1
 9.  Girls' track             spring               6.2
10.  Boys basketball          winter               5.5
11.  Volleyball               fall                 5.4
12.  Softball                 spring               4.8
13.  Boys' track              spring               4.4
14.  Baseball                 spring               4.2
15.  Fastpitch softball       spring               2.4
16.  Co-ed swimming           winter               2.2
17.  Co-ed tennis             fall/spring          1.9
18.  Co-ed golf               fall/spring          0.8

Data contributed by 21 different high schools.  (C) Stephen G.
Rice, M.D., 1993.