title: Injuries during football tournaments in 45,000 children and adolescents.
abstract: Four percent of the world's population, or 265 million people, play football, and many players are injured every year. The present study investigated more than 1800 injuries in over 45,000 youth players participating in three consecutive international football tournaments in Denmark in 2012-2014. The aim was to investigate the injury types and locations in children and adolescent football players and the differences between genders and age groups (11-15 and 16-19 years of age). An overall injury rate of 15.3 per 1000 player hours was found. The most common injury location was lower extremities (66.7%), and the most common injury type was contusion (24.4%). Girls had a relative risk of injury of 1.5 compared with boys, p < .001, and they had a higher proportion of injuries to knee and lower leg, 23.8%, than boys, 19.0%, p < .01. Boys had a higher proportion of fracture, 6.8%, as opposed to 3.3% among girls, p < .001. In conclusion, we found the youngest girls to have a higher incidence of almost all injury categories than any other group. In general, the incidence of injury decreased with age. The study provides a detailed insight into the injuries that may be expected at a large youth football tournament. These findings are of great value for organizations and healthcare professionals planning similar events and for planning injury prevention strategies, which would be of special interest in the youngest female players in general.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care , Aarhus University Hospital , Aarhus , Denmark.
authors.forename: Line Agger
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Kolstrup
authors.affiliation: b Regional Hospital in Horsens , Horsens , Denmark.
authors.forename: Kristian Ugelvig
authors.initials: KU
authors.lastname: Koopmann
authors.affiliation: c Department of Clinical Medicine , Aarhus University Hospital , Aarhus , Denmark.
authors.forename: Uffe Harboe
authors.initials: UH
authors.lastname: Nygaard
authors.affiliation: d Institute of Sports Medicine, Bispebjerg Hospital, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences , University of Copenhagen , Copenhagen , Denmark.
authors.forename: Rie Harboe
authors.initials: RH
authors.lastname: Nygaard
authors.affiliation: c Department of Clinical Medicine , Aarhus University Hospital , Aarhus , Denmark.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Agger
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001265:Athletic Injuries / Q000453:epidemiology*; D002648:Child; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003718:Denmark / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012916:Soccer / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*
keywords: Football injuries; large cohort; youth football