Objectives:
To estimate and describe morbidity from sports and recreation injuries in children and adolescents.
Design:
Survey conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics—the Child Health Supplement to the 1988 National Health Interview Survey.
Setting:
The general community.
Participants:
Representative sample of the noninstitutionalized civilian US population. Five percent of the eligible households did not participate. The subject of this report is 11 840 children and adolescents aged 5 to 17 years.
Main Outcome Measures:
Medically attended non-fatal injuries resulting from sports and recreation, and serious sports injuries, defined as injuries resulting in hospitalization, surgical treatment, missed school, or half a day or more in bed. Sports and recreation injuries were defined as those occurring in a place of recreation or sports, or receiving any of the following International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision (ICD-9) E-codes: struck in sports, fall in sports, bicycle-related injury, riding an animal, water sports, overexertion, fall from playground equipment or other vehicles, primarily skates and skateboards.
Results:
The estimated annual number of all injuries from sports and recreation in US children and adolescents is 4 379 000 (95% confidence interval=3 147 000 to 5 611 000); from serious sport injuries, 1 363 000 (95% confidence interval=632 000 to 2 095 000). Sports account for 36% of injuries from all causes. Cause and nature of injury are strongly related to age. Sports do not account for a disproportionate number of serious or repeated injuries compared with other causes of injuries.
Conclusion:
Sports activities account for a large number and substantial proportion of all injuries to children and youth.(Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 1995;149:1009-1016)