Context: Whereas researchers have provided estimates for the number of head impacts sustained within a youth football season, less is known about the number of plays across which such impact exposure occurs.
Objective: To estimate the number of plays in which youth football players participated during the 2013 season and to estimate injury incidence through play-based injury rates.
Design: Descriptive epidemiology study.
Setting: Youth football.
Patients Or Other Participants: Youth football players (N = 2098; age range, 5-15 years) from 105 teams in 12 recreational leagues across 6 states.
Main Outcome Measure(s): We calculated the average number of athlete-plays per season and per game using independent-samples t tests to compare age groups (5-10 years old versus 11-15 years old) and squad sizes (<20 versus ≥20 players); game injury rates per 1000 athlete-exposures (AEs) and per 10 000 athlete-plays; and injury rate ratios (IRRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) to compare age groups.
Results: On average, youth football players participated in 333.9 ± 178.5 plays per season and 43.9 ± 24.0 plays per game. Age groups (5- to 10-year-olds versus 11- to 15-year-olds) did not differ in the average number of plays per season (335.8 versus 332.3, respectively; t = 0.45, P = .65) or per game (44.1 versus 43.7, respectively; t = 0.38, P = .71). However, players from smaller teams participated in more plays per season (373.7 versus 308.0; t = 8.15, P < .001) and per game (47.7 versus 41.4; t = 5.67, P < .001). Older players had a greater game injury rate than younger players when injury rates were calculated per 1000 AEs (23.03 versus 17.86/1000 AEs; IRR = 1.29; 95% CI = 1.04, 1.60) or per 10 000 athlete-plays (5.30 versus 4.18/10 000 athlete-plays; IRR = 1.27; 95% CI = 1.02, 1.57).
Conclusions: A larger squad size was associated with a lower average number of plays per season and per game. Increasing youth football squad sizes may help reduce head-impact exposure for individual players. The AE-based injury rates yielded effect estimates similar to those of play-based injury rates.
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| http://dx.doi.org/10.4085/1062-6050-52.7.06 | DOI Listing |
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