Prevalence of injuries in a selected cohort of high school football players in the city of Winnipeg

Abstract

While many studies have been published documenting injuries in college aged and professional sports, there are few studies that describe the prevalence of injuries among high school athletes. As a first step to creating an injury prevention strategy for high school football, the following study describes the prevalence of injuries among high school aged players. The study included 464 high school football athletes aged 15-18 years. Injuries for the 2005 Winnipeg high school football season were recorded. Athletes were more often injured during practices. The lower body was defined as any structure below the waist. The leg was most often involved in an injury, followed by the torso, and the hand. Sprains/strains and contusions occurred more frequently than concussions and fractures. Defensive backs and linebackers displayed the greatest number of injuries for the defense compared with the running backs on offense. Injury surveillance in Winnipeg will provide comparison opportunities of injury data against established studies with similar cohorts. Injuries will occur within any physical activity (Backx et al, 1991). Therefore, implementation of injury surveillance measures will monitor the injury profile.