The Importance Of Overuse Injuries In Sports
Overuse injuries are speculated to be on the rise in kids. With increased pressure to specialize in a sport and the bar ever-raising to be more competitive and successful in sports, younger kids are specializing in one sport and training more hours per week then ever before. As a result, overuse injuries have been thrust into the public spotlight. Overuse injuries have previously been defined in a variety of ways. For example, Roos et. al described overuse injuries as “injuries that present in a gradual manner and do not have a single definable event associated with their onset” in her paper, Epidemiology of Overuse Injuries in Collegiate and High School Athletics in the United States (Roos et al 2015). Meanwhile DiFiorri et. al defined them
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These injuries are difficult to define and diagnose because often with overuse injuries there is not a definitive or easy to make diagnosis, so they are often labeled as “pain” or defined as injuries if they resulted in time loss from sport, which not all overuse injuries do. Despite all of this, the incidence of overuse injuries 45.9% and 54% of total injuries in youth sports (DiFiori et. al 2014). The incidence of overuse injury is speculated to be around 3.3% of youth athletes (Powell et. al 1999). However, rates are probably higher now due to a speculated increase The prevalence is probably much higher because many of these injuries are of long duration, however information about prevalence among all overuse injuries in sports is very limited. Smaller studies have been done to establish specific incidence and prevalence among different sports or with different subcategories of overuse injuries. Among athletes in wrist loading sports (ie. Gymnastics, tennis, volleyball, etc.), the prevalence of overuse injuries in these sports ranged from 10-28% and the incidence ranged from .02-26% (Kox et. al 2015). Additionally, incidence and prevalence rate are thought to be underestimated due to many overuse injury definitions in literature including “time loss from sport” which is now known to not be synonymous with all overuse
These injuries are difficult to define and diagnose because often with overuse injuries there is not a definitive or easy to make diagnosis, so they are often labeled as “pain” or defined as injuries if they resulted in time loss from sport, which not all overuse injuries do. Despite all of this, the incidence of overuse injuries 45.9% and 54% of total injuries in youth sports (DiFiori et. al 2014). The incidence of overuse injury is speculated to be around 3.3% of youth athletes (Powell et. al 1999). However, rates are probably higher now due to a speculated increase The prevalence is probably much higher because many of these injuries are of long duration, however information about prevalence among all overuse injuries in sports is very limited. Smaller studies have been done to establish specific incidence and prevalence among different sports or with different subcategories of overuse injuries. Among athletes in wrist loading sports (ie. Gymnastics, tennis, volleyball, etc.), the prevalence of overuse injuries in these sports ranged from 10-28% and the incidence ranged from .02-26% (Kox et. al 2015). Additionally, incidence and prevalence rate are thought to be underestimated due to many overuse injury definitions in literature including “time loss from sport” which is now known to not be synonymous with all overuse