In May, the National Athletic Trainers' Association and the NCAA unveiled a report examining 16 years of injury data on college athletes in 15 sports. Published in a special issue of the Journal of Athletic Training, the report provides the broadest picture to date of how, when, and why athletes are injured.
Its authors also used the data to draw some new conclusions about ways to make college sports safer.
Titled "Collegiate Athletic Injuries--Trends and Prevention," the report's key findings include the following:
• More than half of college athletic injuries were to the lower extremities.
• Preseason practice injury rates were two to three times higher than in-season practice injury rates.
• Competition injury rates were higher than practice rates.
• The rates of concussions and ACL injuries rose significantly over the 16-year period. The authors note this is at least in part due to improved reporting and identification of these injuries, not necessarily a large increase in their frequency.
Across all sports, there was no significant increase or decrease in injury rates over the 16 years. The sports with the highest injury rates were football, wrestling, and men's soccer. The lowest rates were recorded in softball, women's volleyball, and baseball.
The report's authors included both general and sport-specific recommendations on how this data can assist in injury prevention efforts. Overall suggestions include increased use of preventive ankle taping and bracing, implementing exercise programs that involve balance training, and a heightened focus on neuromuscular conditioning.
To see sport-specific data and recommendations, and to download the full report, go to:www.nata.org/collegiateinjurystats07.
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