Risk factors for injury in middle school football players.

Background: Little is known about the frequency of or risk factors for injuries in middle school or junior high school football players.

Purpose: To examine the associations of player characteristics (injury history, conditioning, player position, special equipment) and physical parameters (body mass index, weight, height, grip strength) with risk of injury.

Study Design: Prospective cohort study.

Methods: We documented risk factors for injury in 646 middle school football players, 10 to 15 years of age, in the Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, school district during the 1998 and 1999 seasons. Player characteristics and physical parameters were measured at the beginning of both seasons. Logistic regression methods were used to determine whether baseline variables were associated with the odds of subsequent injury.

Results: More playing experience was the only variable significantly associated with the risk of injury in multivariate analyses. This association was observed regardless of the type of injury and even after indirectly controlling for time at risk of injury by restricting analyses to first-string players. Increasing age was significantly associated with the risk of fractures.

Conclusions: Results suggest that physical characteristics play a minor role in risk of injury from football in this age group.