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
. 2024 Jun 11;16(6):e62177.
doi: 10.7759/cureus.62177. eCollection 2024 Jun.

Sports and Recreation-Related Wrist Fractures: An Epidemiological Study

Gabriel I Onor Jr  1 , Alec Kellish  1 , Michael Chang  1 , Lilah Fones  1 , Tyler Henry  1 , Margaret Pennington  2 , Daniel A Nemirov  1 , Sommer Hammoud  3 , Pedro K Beredjiklian  2
Affiliations

Sports and Recreation-Related Wrist Fractures: An Epidemiological Study

Gabriel I Onor Jr et al. Cureus. .

Abstract

Background Wrist fractures have increased over the past several decades. The objective of this study was to identify all-cause and sports-related incidence rates of wrist fractures presenting to emergency departments (EDs) in the United States (U.S.) from 2013 to 2022. A secondary aim of the study was to identify if wrist fractures significantly decreased during 2020. Methodology The National Electronic Injury Surveillance System database was queried to identify the number of wrist fractures presenting to U.S. EDs from 2013 to 2022. Incidence rates in 100,000 person-years were calculated by sport, age, sex, and year. Results From 2013 to 2022, there were 2,027,131 wrist fractures evaluated at U.S. EDs. Injuries peaked in the 10-14-year-old age group, followed by the 5-9 and 85+-year-old age groups. In total, 1,096,598 were sustained during sports and recreation. Cycling, playgrounds, and skateboarding were the leading sports and recreation-related activities. Sports-related wrist fractures followed a unimodal distribution peaking in the 10-14-year-old age group. Females sustained 52% of wrist fractures overall but only 39% of sports-related wrist fractures. All-terrain vehicle and skateboarding-related wrist fractures significantly increased over the study period. Playground and soccer-related wrist fractures significantly decreased in 2020. Conclusions All-cause wrist fractures presenting to U.S. EDs significantly increased from 2013 to 2022 though sports-related wrist fractures did not. Pediatric males and elderly females are most at risk for wrist fractures overall while sports-related wrist fractures predominate in the pediatric population. Youth sports and recreation officials should be aware of the risks to mitigate the incidence of sports-related wrist fractures.

Keywords: distal radius; epidemiology; hand surgery; sports-related injuries; wrist fractures.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Human subjects: Consent was obtained or waived by all participants in this study. Animal subjects: All authors have confirmed that this study did not involve animal subjects or tissue. Conflicts of interest: In compliance with the ICMJE uniform disclosure form, all authors declare the following: Payment/services info: All authors have declared that no financial support was received from any organization for the submitted work. Financial relationships: All authors have declared that they have no financial relationships at present or within the previous three years with any organizations that might have an interest in the submitted work. Other relationships: All authors have declared that there are no other relationships or activities that could appear to have influenced the submitted work.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. All-cause wrist fractures.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Sports-related wrist fractures.
Figure 3
Figure 3. Overall incidence rates of wrist fractures by age.
Figure 4
Figure 4. Sports-related wrist fractures by age.
Figure 5
Figure 5. All-cause incidence of wrist fractures in females.
Figure 6
Figure 6. All-cause incidence of wrist fractures in males.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

References

    1. Acute fractures of the scaphoid bone: systematic review and meta-analysis. Alshryda S, Shah A, Odak S, Al-Shryda J, Ilango B, Murali SR. Surgeon. 2012;10:218–229. - PubMed
    1. Trends in the incidence and treatment of distal radius fractures in the United States in privately insured and Medicare Advantage enrollees. Kakar S, Noureldin M, Van Houten HK, Mwangi R, Sangaralingham LR. Hand (N Y) 2022;17:331–338. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Changes in the incidence and treatment of distal radius fractures in adults - a 22-year nationwide register study of 276,145 fractures. Viberg B, Tofte S, Rønnegaard AB, Jensen SS, Karimi D, Gundtoft PH. Injury. 2023;54:110802. - PubMed
    1. Admission of upper extremity injuries presenting to the emergency department: an NEISS study. Eckhoff MD, Schwartz BT, Parikh SB, Wells ME, Brugman SC. Hand (N Y) 2023:15589447231219711. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Epidemiology of fall related forearm and wrist fractures among adults treated in US hospital emergency departments. Orces CH, Martinez FJ. Inj Prev. 2011;17:33–36. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources