Skin infections among US high school athletes: A national survey

Abstract

Skin infections have long been a reported problem among high school athletes, particularly wrestlers. There has yet to be a national study describing the epidemiology of skin infections across multiple high school sports. We sought to report the epidemiology of skin infections among US high school athletes. High school sports-related skin infections resulting in time loss were reported by a convenience sample of US high schools from 2009/2010 through 2013/2014 via High School Reporting Information Online. During the study, 474 skin infections were reported among 20,858,781 athlete exposures, a rate of 2.27 per 100,000 athlete exposures. The largest number of skin infections occurred in wrestling (73.6%) followed by football (17.9%). The most common infections were bacterial (60.6%) and tinea (28.4%) infections. Body parts most often affected were the head/face (25.3%) followed by the forearm (12.7%). The study included only high schools with National Athletic Trainers' Association-affiliated athletic trainers, which may limit generalizability. However, using athletic trainers as data reporters improved data quality. Skin infections are an important subset of high school sports-related adverse events. An understanding of the epidemiology of sports-related skin infections should promote awareness and drive evidence-based prevention efforts.