Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Comparative Study
. 2007 Jul-Sep;42(3):381-7.

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

Alex J Nelson  1 , Christy L Collins, Ellen E Yard, Sarah K Fields, R Dawn Comstock
Affiliations
Comparative Study

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

Alex J Nelson et al. J Athl Train. 2007 Jul-Sep.

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 < .001). Boys' basketball had the highest rate of ankle injury (7.74 per 10 000 athlete-exposures), followed by girls' basketball (6.93) and boys' football (6.52). In all sports except girls' volleyball, rates of ankle injury were higher in competition than in practice. Overall, most ankle injuries were diagnosed as ligament sprains with incomplete tears (83.4%). Ankle injuries most commonly caused athletes to miss less than 7 days of activity (51.7%), followed by 7 to 21 days of activity loss (33.9%) and more than 22 days of activity loss (10.5%).

Conclusions: Sports that combine jumping in close proximity to other players and swift changes of direction while running are most often associated with ankle injuries. Future research on ankle injuries is needed to drive the development and implementation of more effective preventive interventions.

Keywords: injury epidemiology; injury surveillance; lower extremity injuries.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Ankle injuries by high school sport, High School Sports-Related Injury Surveillance Study, United States, 2005–2006 school year
Figure 2
Figure 2. Ankle injuries as a proportion of total high school injuries by sport, High School Sports-Related Injury Surveillance Study, United States, 2005–2006 school year
Figure 3
Figure 3. Diagnosis of ankle injuries by high school sport, High School Sports-Related Injury Surveillance Study, United States, 2005– 2006 school year. *“Other” includes diagnoses such as stress fracture, muscle strain, tendinitis, etc
Figure 4
Figure 4. Time loss for ankle injuries by high school sport, High School Sports-Related Injury Surveillance Study, United States, 2005–2006 school year. *“Other” includes medical disqualification for the season, situations in which the athlete chose not to continue, etc
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. National Federation of State High School Associations. Participation in high school sports increases again; confirms NFHS commitment to stronger leadership. October 2006. Available at: http://www.nfhs.org/web/2006/09/participation_in_high_school_sports_incr.... Accessed December 1, 2006 .
    1. Beynnon BD, Vacek PM, Murphy D, Alosa D, Paller D. First-time inversion ankle ligament trauma: the effects of sex, level of competition, and sport on the incidence of injury. Am J Sports Med. 2005;33:1485–1491. - PubMed
    1. DeHaven KE, Lintner DM. Athletic injuries: comparison by age, sport, and gender. Am J Sports Med. 1986;14:218–224. - PubMed
    1. McLain LG, Reynolds S. Sports injuries in a high school. Pediatrics. 1989;84:446–450. - PubMed
    1. McKay GD, Goldie PA, Payne WR, Oakes BW, Watson LF. A prospective study of injuries in basketball: a total profile and comparison by gender and standard of competition. J Sci Med Sport. 2001;4:196–211. - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources