Accidents & Violence, Author Interviews, Exercise - Fitness / 01.05.2014
High School Basketball Injuries Top 2.5 Million
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Lara McKenzie, Ph.D. MA
Associate Professor of Pediatrics
Center for Injury Research and Policy
The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital
Columbus, Ohio
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. McKenzie: Our study was the first to compare and describe epidemiological patterns of basketball-related injuries presenting for treatment to emergency departments and to the high school athletic training setting using surveillance data captured from large, nationally representative samples. Specifically, we compared estimated national incidence, rates of injury and body sites injured, and diagnoses. Nationally, an estimated 1,514,957 athletes with basketball-related injuries reported to the emergency department and 1,064,551 presented to the athletic training setting. Patterns of basketball-related injuries presenting to the emergency department differ from those presenting to the high school athletic training setting for treatment, with those presenting to the emergency department being more severe. In general, injuries that could be relatively quickly assessed and more easily diagnosed and treated, such as strains and/or sprains, presented more commonly to the athletic training setting, while injuries that required more extensive diagnostic or treatment procedures, such as fractures, were treated more commonly in the emergency department.
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