High School Rowing Injuries: National Athletic Treatment, Injury and Outcomes Network (NATION)

Abstract

Context: Data on high school (HS) rowing injuries are lacking. Objective: To describe the epidemiology of HS boys' and girls' rowing injuries during the 2011-2012 through 2013-2014 academic years. Design: Descriptive epidemiology study. Setting: Injury and exposure data from 8 and 11 boys' and girls' rowing programs providing 13 and 17 team-seasons of data, respectively. Patients or Other Participants: High school boys' and girls' varsity rowing student-athletes. Intervention(s): High school rowing data from the National Athletic Treatment, Injury and Outcomes Network. Main Outcome Measure(s): Injury rates and rate ratios were reported with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Results: In HS boys' and girls' rowing, 59 and 190 injuries were reported, respectively, for rates of 2.39/1000 athleteexposures (95% CI ? 1.78, 3.00) and 8.60/1000 athleteexposures (95% CI ? 7.38, 9.82). The girls' rowing injury rate was 3.60 times that of boys' (95% CI ? 2.69, 4.82). Conclusions: These findings suggest a higher injury rate among HS female rowers than HS male rowers. Additional research exploring reasons for the sex difference is warranted.