Author Interviews, Exercise - Fitness, Orthopedics, Pediatrics / 31.05.2017
Young Athletes Who Specialize In Single Sport May Raise Risk of Overuse Injury
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Jacqueline Pasulka, OMS II
Des Moines University College of Osteopathic Medicine , Des Moines , IA
Division of Pediatric Orthopaedic Surgery & Sports Medicine, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago , Chicago , IL
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: In this study young athletes were recruited from both sports medicine and general practice clinics and were asked to complete surveys reporting on their sports participation, training patterns, and any sports-related injuries they had over the previous six months. We focused this study on the subset of athletes who met the criteria for being a single-sport specialized athlete based on their reported participation in only one sport and training for eight months or more during the year for that sport. Athletes participating in individual sports were more likely to be single-sport specialized than their team sport peers, and they also reported an earlier age at which they began specializing in their sport. Additionally, injury types differed among these two groups as single-sport specialized athletes in individual sport athletes had a greater proportion of overuse injuries, while single-sport specialized athletes in team sport athletes had a greater proportion of acute injuries.
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