The OneSport Injury Campaign
The AAOS and AOSSM hope their joint OneSport Injury youth sports specialization campaign, an outdoor public service campaign featuring a female soccer player and a male baseball player with the headline, “The OneSport Injury: Doctors Can Treat Them. Parents and Coaches Can Prevent Them” will help them share important data like this with more youth athletes and the people who take care of them.
“Immature bones, insufficient rest after injury, and poor training and conditioning can contribute to overuse injuries, Matzkin said during the webcast. “We know that overuse injuries account for half of all sports injuries in middle school and high school. Although we can treat most youth injuries, they can have consequences later in life, so it is vital to reduce or prevent incidence now and avoid the onset of chronic conditions. Equally important is nutrition as it is vital to proper bone health.”
Matzkin told OTW that orthopedic physicians and surgeons don’t always have time to have these types of discussion during patient appointments, so it is important to have resources to point them to.
She added, “We want kids to play sports but it becomes a fine line between beneficial and detrimental. We need to encourage kids that they don’t have to pick just one sport. Not only are they at higher risk of injury, they will also lose the long-term benefits of sports when they burn out or can’t go back because of injury.”
The AAOs and AOSSM encourage you to direct your youth athletes and their families to https://orthoinfo.aaos.org/en/staying-healthy/onesportinjury/.
