Title

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

Abstract

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.

Department(s)

Sports Medicine and Athletic Training

Document Type

Article

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsm.2004.014605

Publication Date

2005

Journal Title

British journal of sports medicine

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