Ankle injuries among United States high school sports athletes, 2005-2006.

TLDR

Ankle injuries are the most common sport‑related injuries, yet no national cross‑sport, cross‑sex analysis has been published. The study aims to determine ankle injury incidence rates by sex, exposure type, and sport. Using a descriptive epidemiologic design, data from 100 U.S. high schools collected via the High School RIO system during 2005‑2006 were analyzed across multiple sports.

Abstract

CONTEXT: Ankle injuries are the most common sport-related injuries. To date, no studies have been published that use national data to present a cross-sport, cross-sex analysis of ankle injuries among US high school athletes. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the incidence rates of ankle injuries by sex, type of exposure, and sport. DESIGN: Descriptive epidemiologic study. SETTING: One hundred US high schools. PATIENTS OR OTHER PARTICIPANTS: United States high school athletes. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): We reviewed ankle injury data collected over the 2005-2006 school year from a nationally representative sample obtained by High School RIO, an injury surveillance system. Specific sports studied were boys' football, boys' and girls' soccer, girls' volleyball, boys' and girls' basketball, boys' wrestling, boys' baseball, and girls' softball. RESULTS: An estimated 326 396 ankle injuries occurred nationally in 2005-2006, yielding an injury rate of 5.23 ankle injuries per 10 000 athlete-exposures. Ankle injuries occurred at a significantly higher rate during competition (9.35 per 10 000 athlete-exposures) than during practice (3.63) (risk ratio = 2.58; 95% confidence interval = 2.26, 2.94; P Language: en