Kerr ZY, et al. - The epidemiology of youth boys' and girls' lacrosse injuries during the 2015-2016 seasons, were elucidated in this research. A greater injury incidence was reported in the boys' lacrosse than girls' lacrosse. This, in turn, reflected the contact nature of the boys' game. The high incidence of stick- and ball-related injuries were indicative of the requirement for youth specific rules to better protect youth players.

Methods

• The data was collected from a sample of 10 leagues in five states with 1090 boys' and 480 girls' lacrosse players from the U9-U15 divisions.
• Athletic trainers reported injury and exposure data at games and practices.
• Time-loss (TL) injuries were defined as resulting in >=24 hours of participation restriction time.
• An estimation was pursued of the injury counts and rates per 1000 athlete-games/practices.
• Injury rate ratios (IRR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) contrasted the rates by sex and age division.

Results

• There were 241 and 59 injuries in boys' and girls' youth lacrosse, respectively, of which 17.0% and 18.6% were TL.
• Compared to girls, boys reported a greater overall injury rate (12.7 vs. 8.7/1000 athlete-games/practices; IRR=1.5; 95%CI: 1.1-1.9).
• U13/U15 boys displayed a higher TL injury rate than U9/U11 boys (2.6 vs. 1.0/1000 athlete-game/practices; IRR=2.6; 95%CI: 1.1-6.1).
• Maximum injuries were diagnosed as contusions (boys: 53.7%; girls: 47.2%).
• It arose from stick contact (boys: 34.1%; girls: 30.6%) and ball contact (boys: 17.1%; girls: 25.0%). Among girls, ball contact contributed to 75.0% (n=9) of all head/face injuries.
• The player contact was the most common injury mechanism (50.0%, n=7), followed by stick contact (35.7%, n=5), among the 14 concussions reported in boys.