Epidemiology of sports injuries

Participation in sports over the last few decades has increased globally, especially in children and adolescents.2 Whether it be intense practice with ambitious competitive aspirations, or more moderate involvement at an amateur level, involvement in sports is a cultural pillar in the United States and abroad. In addition to enhancing physical health, sports are associated with improvements in mental health such as heightened self-esteem, greater social interaction, and reductions in the likelihood of depression.14 With all this being said, regular physical exertion in athletes inevitably results in a greater occurrence of injuries. Factors such as, but not limited to, play time, preventative training, warm-up routines, professional supervision, and lifestyle all affect injury incidence. By reviewing the current sports injury landscape and evaluating epidemiological data, one can tune preventative interventions to promote safer sports participation. The implementation of these preventative measures in both practice and competition settings is a key upstream approach to reduce the risk of injuries requiring long recovery periods, physical therapy, or surgical intervention. A reduction in the incidence of sports injuries would result in notable economic and public health benefits. Many experimental approaches, such as online self-entry of injury data, are being developed in order to better understand sports injury epidemiology and there is significant public health interest in the field.