A new report discusses those sports that are the most likely to leave participating children with injuries, and although some sports likely confirm the suspicions of many, other sports deemed dangerous might take some people by surprise.
On average, 3.5 million child injuries result every year from various sports played around the country, and one out of every four of those injuries could be considered serious. A study commissioned by an organization known as Safe Kids Worldwide showed that football was mentioned 39% of the time by poll participants as the sport most likely to cause an injury, with basketball and soccer trailing that sport by a wide margin.
The danger of football is confirmed by The American Journal of Sports Medicine, as well as various other studies. Concussions are of particular concern, with 43,000 to 67,000 being sustained every year. This number only increases when you take into consideration the concussions that aren’t reported, which could double the estimated rates.
Even though soccer was most likely to injure a female student athlete, cheerleading also poses an inordinate danger. An LA Times study which looked at injuries from the past quarter century showed cheerleaders experiencing head or spinal cord injuries that led to disability at a rate that was double what participants of other sports sustained. Since 1980, emergency room visits from cheerleading injuries have sextupled.
For more information about the dangers of concussions in sports, click here.