CHICAGO — Soccer injuries are sending soaring
numbers of U.S. kids to emergency rooms, a trend driven in part by young
players with concussions seeking urgent medical care, a study has found.
The findings,
based on 25 years of data, partly reflect soccer’s growing popularity. But the researchers and sports
medicine experts believe the trend also is a result of greater awareness about
concussions and their potential risks. Coaches and parents are likely seeking
emergency treatment for symptoms that in previous years might have been
downplayed or overlooked.
Nearly 3 million
players aged 7 through 17 received ER treatment for soccer-related injuries in the 2000-2014 study. The overall rate
of injuries, which takes into account soccer’s
rising popularity, more than doubled to 220 per 10,000 players in 2013, from
106 per 10,000 players in 1990. Researchers did not have enough data to
calculate 2014 rates.
More than 200,000
concussions or head injuries were treated in emergency rooms, or 7 percent of
injuries. The rate jumped to almost 30 per 10,000 people in 2013 from just
under 2 per 10,000 players in 1990.
That trend
underscores a need for better safety education and injury prevention in youth soccer, said Dr. Huiyun Xiang, the
lead author and a researcher at the Center for Injury Research and Policy at
Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.
“Concussions
can have significant consequences in terms of cognitive function and brain
development,” Xiang said.
- Playing sports with concussion doubles recovery time, study finds
His study is an
analysis of data from a national injury surveillance system and was published
Monday in Pediatrics.
According to U.S.
Youth Soccer, there were more
than 3 million registered soccer
players younger than 19 in 2014, almost twice as many as in 1990.
New plan to help head off concussions in sports
Washington D.C. schools will be using a new web-based system to track head injuries in youth sports and try to reduce the long-term health conseq…
The rate of
injuries from playing soccer has
ranked second behind football in other studies on youth sports, including an
analysis of 2015-2016 data from Reporting Information Online, an internet-based
injury surveillance system for high school sports.
For boys,
football-related concussions result in more ER visits than other sports,
according to previous research. For girls, it’s soccer, according to an analysis of 2001-2012 data by the federal
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The current study lacks information
on gender-specific soccer injury
rates.
Sprains and
fractures were the most common injuries; most players were not hospitalized.
Falling and getting hit by another player or the ball were among leading causes
of injury but there’s no data in the study on whether many injuries were from
heading the ball.
Concern about
kids’ injuries from heading led to the U.S. Soccer Federation’s recent restrictions including a ban for kids
aged 10 and younger and limits on heading for those aged 11-13.
Many concussions
in soccer occur when heads
collide as two players jump up to head the ball, said Dr. Cynthia LaBella, a
sport medicine specialist at Chicago’s Ann Robert H. Lurie Children’s
Hospital. She said learning proper technique including tensing neck muscles can
help kids avoid injury while heading the ball.
Labella noted that
soccer has become so popular
that it attracts kids with a wide range of athletic ability, and that many
injuries she treats are in kids who lack adequate strength and conditioning for
their soccer level.
“Everyone’s
so eager to join the soccer
team. They’re signing up because they want to be with their buddies,” she
said. “The range of athleticism especially at the youth and preteen level
is pretty broad.”