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Innovative study will track health and safety of youth football participants.

Ten youth leagues in six states  are participating in USA Football's study of player health and safety. The nation's governing body for  the sport on the youth level commissioned the study with Indianapolis-based Datalys  Center for Sports Injury Research and Prevention in February. The  independent scientific analysis will document player health and any sustained  injuries during the 2012 season in the leagues of varying size and demographics  in Arizona, Massachusetts, South Carolina, Indiana, Ohio and  West Virginia.

The Datalys Center sends  athletic trainers to practices and games to manage and document player health  using the same methodology as it does for the NCAA  and the National  Athletic Trainers' Association.

In partnership with the Centers  for Disease Control and Prevention, USA Football has educated more than  82,000 youth football coaches since 2007 to best teach the sport and manage  player health, including suspected concussions.

"This ground-breaking research  will enable us to strengthen youth football player safety in an evidence-based  way," USA Football executive director Scott  Hallenbeck said. "USA Football is committed to continue to lead America's  football community and discover how our country's favorite sport can be made  even safer and better."

Approximately 3 million children  age 6-14 play organized youth tackle football.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/sports/article/10-leagues-part-of-USA-Football-study-3922897.php#ixzz29IWc3oy8

 

Study Finds Team Sports Participation May Prevent Youth-Obesity

A new study published online Monday in the journal Pediatrics conducted telephone surveys with 1,718 New Hampshire and Vermont high school students and their parents as part of a 7-year longitudinal study of adolescent health. Participants were asked about the number of sports teams they participated on in the past 12 months, participation in physical education, and involvement in other forms of daily physical activity.

Participation on sports teams was found to be the only form of physical activity with an inverse relationship to both overweight/obesity and obesity, according to the study. 

Read the full Education Week article here.

Study: Warm-up exercises may help prevent ACL injuries

Adolescent female soccer players experience anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) knee injuries at a rate twice that of their male counterparts. This study looked at whether these serious injuries can be prevented.

A total of 4,600 females between the ages of 12 and 17 participated in the study. Two-thirds were instructed in how to perform a 15-minute warm-up program focusing on new control and core stability. 

Seven players in the intervention group, and 14 in the control group experienced ACL injuries. The rate of ACL injury was 64 percent lower in the intervention group. 

Read the full Chicago Tribune article here.

 

Dangers of The Female Athlete Triad

All serious athletes want to be more competitive in their chosen sports, and for many, that includes controlling their body weight. That can be a healthy thing, up to a point. Too often, however, young female athletes try to shed too many pounds and fall victim to a trio of health disorders commonly known as the female athlete triad.

The three parts of the female athlete triad are disordered eating, osteoporosis and amenorrhea, or cessation of menstruation.

Read the full SYS-CON Media article here.

Concussions Can Cause Long-term Effects For Young Athletes

Through May 15 of this year, the IHSA has reviewed 145 reports that have come into their office from sports officials who have had to remove a student-athlete from a game. Of those 145 cases, 118 players did not return to the game in which they sustained the injury. 

Tragedy can strike if a concussion is not treated properly, causing further brain trauma, chronic headaches, psychological disorders, long-term memory loss, Alzheimer’s disease and even death. Cumulative injury can cause serious mental impairment later in life even if immediate problems aren’t evident. 

Even with all these potential long-term effects, and media coverage being hyped recently, not enough people are actually aware of how serious the consequences are.

Read the full Medill Reports article here

Study Finds Heart Abnormalities More Common in Athletes

A heart characteristic linked to sudden cardiac death is more common in athletes than non-athletes, and black male athletes are much more likely to have this characteristic than other athletes, a new study finds.

The characteristic -- left-ventricular hyper-trabeculation (LVHT) -- is a feature of certain types of cardiomyopathy (chronic disease of the heart muscle). The abnormality is the leading cause of exercise-related sudden cardiac death in athletes.

Read the full U.S. News Health article here.

 

Risks of Overworking Young Athletes

Children’s bodies respond to training differently from adults. Growth plates in the knees, feet and shoulders make these body parts particularly vulnerable to overuse. And then there’s the awkwardness and lack of body awareness and control that is prevalent in growing children, all of which increases the risk of injury among young athletes.

This vulnerability to injury runs contrary to the repetition considered necessary to develop skill in young athletes. So, while coaches demand that athletes repeat the same movement patterns over and over again, health-care officials warn of the dangers associated with overuse.

Read the full Ottawa Citizen article here

Study Finds Female and Younger Athletes Take Longer to Recover From Concussions

New research out of Michigan State University reveals female athletes and younger athletes take longer to recover from concussions.

The study, led by Tracey Covassin of MSU's Department of Kinesiology, found females performed worse than males on visual memory tests and reported more symptoms postconcussion.

Additionally, high school athletes performed worse than college athletes on verbal and visual memory tests, and some of the younger athletes still were impaired up to two weeks after their injuries.

Read the full Medical Xpress article here

 

Study Finds Autograft ACL Repair Effective in Young Athletes

 A new study suggests young athletes who need knee ligament surgery do better over the long run when their own tissue is used for the reconstruction procedure, rather than tissue from a donor.

The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) connects the upper and lower leg bones and helps stabilize the knee. It gets the most use in athletes who play a sport such as basketball that involves quick cuts and changes in direction.

Read the full article from the Chicago Tribune here

Youth Baseball Death Highlights Need For Tracking Youth Sports Injuries

Last week in Chicago, a 12-year-old Oswego boy was fatally struck in the head with a baseball while playing catch with a teammate off the field during a game in Wheaton.

A USA Baseball study found that between 1989 to 2010, there were 18 baseball-related deaths in children younger than high school age died, most of them when a pitcher or batter was hit in the head by a ball. 

The recent Chicago tragedy has prompted park district directors and youth league officials to review safety guidelines, and parents to double-check the fit of their children's protective gear. Additionally, it has highlighted the need for a national database to track accidents in youth sports, which could be used to help recognize and minimize injuries.

Read the full Chicago Tribune Article here.