Male High School Athletes More Prone To Shoulder Injuries, Study Claims

It may seem little more than common sense, but a recent student by the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio (as discussed in an article by Medline Plus) confirms that shoulder injuries sustained playing high school athletics were predominantly suffered by males. Overall, only eight percent of all injuries obtained at the high school level were associated with the shoulder; however, such injury was found quite common in male-dominated sports such as baseball (18 percent of all injuries), wrestling (18 percent of all injuries), and football (12 percent of all injuries).

Additional information from the study also reveals the following, emphasizing, as Dawn Comstock, co-author of the study, explains, “the importance of preventing shoulder injuries before they occur”:

• Shoulder injuries were three times more likely to occur in competition than practice.
• Player-to-player contact was the most common cause of injuries to the shoulder of high school athletes (60 percent).
• The most common shoulder injuries – sprains and strains (37 percent), dislocations and separations (24 percent), contusions (12 percent), and fractures (7 percent).
• Six percent of injuries to the shoulder for high school athletes require surgery, with dislocations and separations accounting for more than half of those surgeries.
• Almost one-in-four athletes missed three weeks of the season following a shoulder injury.