Injury Research in Pediatric and Adolescent Sports

Abstract

Although children and adolescents have been involved in organized sport for more than 120 years, research into the risks and injury characteristics of sports participation for this population has lagged well behind the need. However, interest is growing, with approximately 50 % of the available research literature in this area being produced in the last decade (2005–2014). While 41 % of that work was conducted in the USA, 52 different countries are represented, with 19 of them being credited with at least ten studies each. Analysis of the contributions for the five decades prior to 2005 showed only 37 countries represented, with just nine having at least ten papers each.

Despite the increase in the number of studies related to child and adolescent sports injury and some valuable insights arising from them, the overall utility of the available information remains limited, primarily due to methodological concerns, including small sample sizes and/or limited study periods, and lack of standardized definitions of reportable injury events and exposure data. Many of these shortcomings may be attributable to the lack of long-term, systematic, and coherent research programs resulting in an ad hoc approach by the majority of researchers.