Columbus, OH – Shoulder injuries among high school athletes occur most frequently during football compared to other sports, suggests a new study from Nationwide Children’s Hospital.
Using data from a nationally representative sample, researchers identified 2,798 shoulder injuries across nine high school sports from 2005 to 2012. That amounts to approximately 820,691 shoulder injuries among high school athletes nationwide during this time. The injury rate was 2.15 per 10,000 exposures, and injuries were found to occur more often during competition than practice. By sport, football had the highest rate of shoulder injuries and girls soccer had the lowest.
Strains and sprains were the most common type of injury (37.9 percent), followed by dislocation/separation (29.2 percent). About 40 percent of injured players returned within a week, but 8 percent were out for the season or longer.
The study was published online Jan. 13 in the journal of Pediatrics.
