(08) EFFECTS OF SPORT SPECIALIZATION ON INJURY RATES IN YOUTH SPORTS

The increasing number of injuries in youth sports has called for a more critical review of the effect of sports specialization and injury risk for youth sports. Previous studies have shown a correlation between injury risk and sports specialization.

Purpose: Our goal in this study was to examine the occurrence of acute and chronic injuries in single sport and multi-sport athletes. We hypothesized that athletes who specialized in one sport for a longer period of time would exhibit higher injury rates compared to athletes who engaged in multiple sports.

Methods: Participants who volunteered and consented to participate in the study were given an electronic survey and were asked to complete it to the best of their knowledge. Participants under the age of 18 were required to complete the survey with a parent or guardian. The survey included demographic information, information on sport specialization, and injury status within the previous twelve months. The number and proportion of athletes reporting injuries and those reporting no injuries was calculated with differences between age, grade in school, years played, and years specialized being compared using independent samples t-tests. Significance was determined using a p-value < 0.05.

Results: Of the 71 participants (ages 10-18) included in the final analysis, the average age of the participants was 15.3 ± 2.5 years, and a majority were male (67.6%) and white (64.8%). The greatest number of participants were high school graduates while the remainder were in grades 7-12. Thirty-six (50.7%) athletes reported no injury in the last 12 months and 35 (49.2%) reported a new or recurring injury in the last 12 months. Of the injured athletes, a majority (68.6%) had an acute injury. Acute injuries included broken bones, damage or ruptures to passive structures such as the Anterior Cruciate Ligament and the meniscus. The only statistically significant difference between the injured and not injured athletes was the grade in school (p = 0.045), with older athletes exhibiting higher injury rates than younger athletes.

Conclusions: Our data suggest that single-sport specialized athletes did not exhibit higher injury rates than multi-sport athletes. Total training volume and appropriate recovery may be more important with determining injury risk than whether an athlete specializes in one sport at an earlier age. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: When identifying specialized athletes, it is important to categorize them as: 1) those that specialize in one sport 2) those that specialize in one sport and some of another, and 3) those that “specialize” in two or more sports simultaneously. Practitioners should work with parents and athletes to monitor and manage total sport training volume to maximize benefits of youth sports and minimize acute and chronic injuries.

Acknowledgements: none