While participation in youth sports offers several health benefits, it also increases the risk of injuries. Interest in youth sports injuries continues to grow as seen with recent media focus on the potential adverse effects of youth sports specialization. A new study published in the journal Sports Health investigated associations between sports specialization and health-related quality of life after injury and found that there is no adverse effect of sports specialization on health-related quality of life after an injury. 

The multi-center, cross-sectional study was performed at three primary care sports medicine clinics, including Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago. The study included 336 youth athletes (average age: 14.2 years) who originally presented for musculoskeletal injury or concussion. At the initial clinic visit, patients completed the Player Development Survey to determine sports specialization level (highly specialized, moderately specialized, and low specialized). About 1 month after enrollment, they completed the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System to determine health-related quality of life measures. 

The results showed that there were no differences in health-related quality of life scores across the three levels of sports specialization. An analysis based on sex found that female athletes have worse short-term health-related quality of life scores after an injury, regardless of sports specialization level. This suggests that injured female athletes may need closer monitoring due to possibly worse short-term health-related quality of life, but further investigation is needed, says senior author Cynthia LaBella, MD, Medical Director of the Institute for Sports Medicine at Lurie Children’s and Professor of Pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. She adds that future work will focus on injured female athletes and identifying the factors that may be contributing to lower health-related quality of life after an injury and potential mitigating factors. 

Pediatric research at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago is conducted through Stanley Manne Children’s Research Institute.