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GeorgiaLax
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Latest NFHS Injury Surveillance Study Shows Decrease in Injuries in Girls Lacrosse for Third Straight Year Concussion rates in Competition Drop Dramatically 2/1/2012 The most recent National Federation of High Schools Injury Surveillance Study (ISS) released in the fall of 2011 shows a decrease in injuries in girls lacrosse for the third straight school year, bucking a popular belief that the sport has become more dangerous in recent years. The NFHS collects injury data from a random sample of 100 US high schools each year as a part of the ISS conducted by a research group led by Dr. Dawn Comstock from the Center for Injury Research and Policy at the Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. The sports covered by the ISS include football, boys and girls soccer, boys and girls lacrosse, boys and girls basketball, wrestling, volleyball, baseball, softball, and cheerleading. While the ISS has been conducted for six years, boys and girls lacrosse has only been included in the study for three. In addition to the decrease in injuries overall, the study reported an even more significant decrease in concussions for high school girls lacrosse players over the same three year period. Much has been done in recent years to improve the safety of the girls lacrosse by US Lacrosse, the national governing body of men’s and women’s lacrosse. Steps taken include increasing in penalty for major fouls in a girls lacrosse game and promotion of safe play by a “Be Fierce and Fair” sportsmanship campaign. While the research into all girls lacrosse injuries, including concussions, is only three years old, the efforts by US Lacrosse and others to enhance the safety of players seems to be having its intended effect. In the NFHS study, data is collected from athletic trainers around the country. When defining injury rates for each sport, the researchers look at the number of injuries that occur per “athlete exposure”. An athlete exposure (AE) is defined as one athlete participating in one practice or competition where he or she is exposed to the possibility of athletic injury. Since the first year that girls lacrosse was studied in the 2008-2009 school year, overall injury rates in girls lacrosse have fallen from 1.72 in the first year to 1.62 in 2009-2010 to a new low of 1.4 in 2010-2011. Injuries occurring in competition are over twice as frequent as those occurring in practice, but each of those categories has seen a drop in the last three years as well. The most common injury reported in the study each year was a strain/ sprain. Concussion rates in girls lacrosse are down overall from the 2008-2009 school year from an incident rate of 3.94 per 10,000 athletic exposures to 3.43 in the 2010-2011 school year. The rate of concussion in competition has fallen significantly in that same time period. In 2008-2009, the rate was 9.93 per 10,000 AE. By last year, the rate was only 7.04, a decrease of almost 30%. Concussion rate in practice was up slightly in the same time period from 1.33 to 1.54. By comparison, the concussion rate in several other girls sports is on the rise. Concussion rates in competition during the 2010-2011 school year was 14.28 and 10.37 for girls soccer and girls basketball, respectively. The overall concussion rate for girls soccer has risen above girls lacrosse over the last three years as well. After tallying a rate of 3.41 in 2008-2009, the overall incident rate in the most recent period was 3.83. The drop in concussions is even more significant when considering the increase in diagnosis of concussions across the board in all sports. The NFHS reports in the most recent study that it is likely that the increase in concussions overall reflect “an increase in the diagnosis and reporting of sustained concussions given the recent focus on concussions in the sports medicine community as well as the lay media”. The surveillance study was funded through the support of the National Federation of High Schools and a research grant from the CDC – National Center for Injury Prevention Control.
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