Cheerleading injuries double among U.S. kids

The number of injuries related to cheerleading among U.S. children has more than doubled since 1990, likely owing to increasingly risky gymnastic moves and stunts, researchers reported Tuesday.

Their study, published in the journal Pediatrics, found that between 1990 and 2002, there was a 110 percent increase in the number of cheerleading injuries requiring a hospital visit—from 10,900 in 1990 to 22,900 in 2002.

That far outpaced the 18 percent increase in the number of children participating in the sport, and the numbers do not reflect the many injuries treated outside hospital emergency rooms.

“It’s an underestimate almost for sure,” said study co-author Dr. Gary A. Smith, director of the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.

He told Reuters Health that it’s likely much of the blame for the increase lies in the increasingly tricky maneuvers many cheerleading squads are performing.

Teenagers were much more likely than younger children to suffer an injury - probably reflecting the fact that older cheerleaders often perform difficult tumbling and stunts, like pyramid formations and “basket” tosses.

As it stands, there are no universal requirements regarding the training of cheerleading coaches. The current findings suggest that should change, Smith and colleague Brenda J. Shields argue.

“Mandatory training and certification of all cheerleading coaches should be required,” they conclude in their report.

The study, based on injury data collected from hospitals by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, can only point to trends in injury rates, and not to whether poor coaching is to blame. But uniform safety training and certification programs for coaches could help reduce the chances of children being injured, Smith said.

The American Association of Cheerleading Coaches and Advisors has a certification program, but schools do not universally require that coaches go through this or similar training.

Overall, Shields and Smith found, sprains and strained muscles were the most common cheerleading injuries. Bone fractures and dislocations accounted for about 16 percent of injuries, and concussions and other head injuries for 3.5 percent.

While cheerleaders between the ages of 12 and 17 were 6.5 times more likely to be injured as those ages 6 to 11, younger children were at greater risk of upper-extremity injuries, such as wrist sprains. This, the investigators note, could partially reflect the fact that young children are often not taught “how to fall”—dispersing the impact through the whole body rather than using the hands to break the fall.

Besides mandatory training for coaches, Shields and Smith call for a national database on cheerleading injuries that would allow the causes to be more closely analyzed—which would likely help in devising better prevention efforts.

SOURCE: Pediatrics, January 2006.

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