Retrospective Analysis of Exposure To Injury Risk Factors During Youth Baseball in Current Collegiate Players

Abstract

In 2013, it was estimated that nearly 5.3 million adolescents ages 7–17 played organized baseball (Costa, 2015). Pitching is a key component to the game and is of particular interest to sports medicine professionals due to the tremendous stress placed on the arm. In 2001 Lyman found that 26% and 32% of little league pitchers experienced elbow and shoulder pain respectively. Olsen, in 2006 also found that pitching with arm fatigue caused a significant increase in injuries. Many risk factors are associated with these injuries such as poor mechanics, underdeveloped musculoskeletal system, and poor coaching/game management. This raises serious concerns for the current health of adolescent athletes but also raises the question as to the effect this may have on youth baseball players as they mature. To date there is very limited research describing the relationship between exposure to risk factors as a youth and ability to play collegiate baseball. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to acquire descriptive data related to collegiate baseball player’s exposure to risk factors associated with injury. METHODS: Participants included 136 DII baseball players. An electronic survey consisting of 54 questions was distributed to current players asking them to recall youth (ages 6–17) playing history. The response rate was 76% (n=104) which were used for data analysis. RESULTS: Of the 104 responses 97.1% of subjects reported playing with arm pain and 96.2% reported playing with arm fatigue. From those statistics 53.8% reported injury resulting in losing 1 week or more of playing time and 51% further reported seeking out a physician. Data also revealed that injured players threw an average of 78.9 ± 17.9 pitches over 5.33 ± 1.19 innings while those that remained healthy threw 66.9 ±22.9 pitches over 4.34 ± 1.39 innings. Additionally, 47.1% reported pitching for more than 1 team and 85.7% reported immediately being placed in another position. CONCLUSIONS: The present results suggest that a large majority of current collegiate players experienced significant amounts of arm pain and fatigue while playing youth baseball, this resulted in over half of the subjects reporting missing time or needing to see a physician. Future research depicting the correlation of past exposure to risk factors and current playing and injury status is warranted.