Fractures Cost Athletes Most Time Off

(August 5, 2010) - They aren't the most common sports injury, but bone fractures (Read about "Bone Fractures") are expensive and they cost athletes the most time out of action. Fractures are more likely to result in extended time lost and medical disqualification from participation than all other injuries combined, according to a study conducted by the Center for Injury Research and Policy.

The study discovered that 95 percent of fractures required costly diagnostic imaging, including x-rays, MRIs and CT scans, and 16 percent required surgical repair. (Read about "X-rays" "MRI - Magnetic Resonance Imaging" "CT Scan - Computerized Tomography")

In addition to the high costs associated with fractures, the study found that due to their serious nature, fractures resulted in significantly more time lost from competition than other injury. Most resulted in three weeks or more time lost (34 percent) or medical disqualification from participation (24 percent).

"Fractures are a major concern for U.S. high school athletes. They can severely affect the athletes' ability to continue sports participation and can impose substantial medical costs on the injured athletes' families," explained study author Dawn Comstock, PhD. "Establishing measures to reduce fractures among U.S. high school athletes should be an important part of sports injury prevention policies."

The popularity of high school sports in the United States has continued to increase over the past decade, with more than 7.5 million athletes participating in school sports during the 2008-09 academic year.

Results of the study, published in the Clinical Journal of Sports Medicine, showed that fractures were the fourth most common injury after ligament sprains, muscle sprains (Read about "Sprains") and bruising. Overall, the most frequently fractured body sites were the hand and finger (28 percent), wrist (10 percent) and lower leg (9 percent). The study also showed that boys sustained the majority (83 percent) of all fractures, and that while mechanisms of fractures differed between sports, half of all fractures occurred as a result of contact between athletes.