An assessment of injuries in college cheerleading: distribution, frequency, and associated factors.

BACKGROUND

Over 50% of all catastrophic injuries in women's sport occur in cheerleading, but unlike other sports, no central tracking system exists.

OBJECTIVE

To obtain, describe, and compare cheerleading injury data and associated factors.

METHODS

Cheerleaders from randomly chosen division IA universities completed surveys designed to acquire basic information and data on injury frequency, type, and location, practice frequency and duration, and related factors.

RESULTS

Participants (n = 440) were aged 18-23 (mean (SD) 20.2 (1.8)) with 6.6 (2.2) years of experience. Most respondents (78%) reported having suffered one or more career injury. Of those injured, 39.7% reported an injury within the preceding year. Respondents sustained 1.0 (0.91) injuries during the preceding year with 1.8 (2.2) days lost. Ankles (44.9%) and wrist/hand (19.3%) were the most commonly injured. Practice frequency and duration were 205 (61.5) days a year (range 80-300) and 2.8 (0.7) hours (range 1.5-4) respectively. Training included stretching (99.7%), endurance activities (87.1%), and weight training (92.9%).

CONCLUSION

Guidelines and policy governing cheerleading should be developed according to mandatory injury reporting similar to that currently used in other sports.