Research

“We started tracking youth sports injuries at the Andrews Sports Medicine & Orthopaedic Center in the year 2000 when all my examining rooms started filling up with kids 13, 14, 15 years of age. I said, ‘My goodness. I didn’t know I was a pediatric orthopedic surgeon.’ ”

Dr. James R. Andrews, CoachSafely Foundation Medical Director
Research Points of Emphasis

Bigger than the NFL, NBA and MLB

  • Youth sports is the largest segment of organized sports in the United States.
  • Some 36 million children and adolescents participate each year compared to 5,000 professional athletes, 480,000 college athletes and eight (8) million high school athletes.
  • NCYS reports that 70 percent of children and adolescents who participate quit playing sports by age 13.

National Data on the Epidemic

  • Nationwide Children’s Hospital reports that of the 36 million youth sports participants, eight (8) million will receive medical care for an injury annually.
  • Sports injuries are the second leading cause of emergency room visits for children and adolescents.
  • These numbers leave out the injuries not seen by a physician.

Surveillance

To create an Independent Review Board (IRB) study at Samford University to collect self-reported youth sports-related health and injury data from parents and coaches across the United States.

 

 

 

Our National Research Partner
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Samford University Center for Sports Analytics

The Center’s Mission encompasses all areas where analytics impacts sports including fan engagement, sponsorship, player tracking, sports medicine, sports media and operations. The Samford Sports Analytics leadership is working with the CoachSafely Foundation to develop the Health Equity, Injury Reporting and Surveillance program using evidenced-based data and analysis.

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