High School Football Injury Rates and Services by Athletic Trainer Employment Status

Abstract

Context Reported injury rates and services in sports injury surveillance may be influenced by the employment setting of the certified athletic trainers (ATs) reporting these data. Objective To determine whether injury rates and the average number of AT services per injury in high school football varied by AT employment status. Design Cross-sectional study. Setting We used data from the National Athletic Treatment, Injury and Outcomes Network and surveyed ATs about their employment setting. Patients or Other Participants Forty-four responding ATs (37.9% of all National Athletic Treatment, Injury and Outcomes Network participants) worked at high schools with football programs and were included in this study. Fourteen ATs were full-time employees of the high school, and 30 ATs were employed as outreach ATs (ie, full-time and part-time ATs from nearby clinics, hospitals, and graduate school programs). Main Outcome Measure(s) We calculated injury rates per 1000 athlete-exposures and average number of AT services per injury. Results Reported injury rates and services per injury were greater among full-time school employees compared with outreach ATs. However, injury rates did not differ when restricted to time-loss injuries only. Conclusions Our findings suggest that ATs who are full-time school employees may be able to identify and care for more patients with injuries.