Health issues in youth sports
Given that these athletes are physically and mentally underdeveloped, they are particularly susceptible to heat illness, eating disorders and injury; sufficiently severe conditions can result in death.
Symptoms to watch for are dry or sticky mouth,[3] headache, dizziness, cramps, unusual fatigue, confusion,[2] and loss of consciousness Eating disorders are generally not a primary concern amongst youth athletes, however they are unusually prevalent in wrestling and aesthetic sports such as gymnastics.
Rhythmic gymnasts are often required to meet certain weight targets to attain and maintain a thin shape.”[5] The pressure to please is intense, and correspondingly, 42% of female aesthetic athletes have been diagnosed with eating disorders.
Youth athletes employ a variety of methods to lose weight, including dehydration, fasting, diet pills, laxatives, vomiting, and the use of rubber exercise suits.
These practices result in “decreased plasma and blood volume, reduced cardiac outputs, impaired thermoregulatory responses, decreased renal blood flow, and an increase in the amount of electrolytes lost from the body.”[6] It has been postulated that wrestlers may suffer impaired growth and development due to their fluctuating body weight.
An issue unique to youth athletics is that the participants’ bones are still growing,[7] placing them at highest risk for injury.
Types of body alignments are bowlegs, unequal leg lengths or flat/high arched feet,[12] femoral neck/pubis, femoral shaft, tibia, fibula, metatarsals, calcaneus, and cuboid Although there has been a longstanding association between repetitive head injuries and subsequent brain damage amongst professional athletes such as boxers and football players, a possible association amongst youth and adolescent amateur sport participants has only recently been taken more seriously.
[22] Ice hockey, soccer, wrestling and basketball carry a high risk for concussion however, football is the most dangerous.
[23] These rule changes have resulted in technique changes at the youngest levels of sports, and youth athletes are now being trained in methods avoiding illegal contact.
A widespread myth is that helmets protect athletes from concussions; they are actually worn to prevent skull fractures.
[22] Following the 2013 “second impact syndrome” death of 17 year-old Rowan Stringer, an Ottawa high school female rugby player, a coroner’s inquest took place and led to the development of the Rowan’s Law Advisory Committee which put forth 49 recommendations regarding the prevention and management of head injuries in amateur sports.
[24] Recommendations were made for mandatory training on the recognition and treatment of concussions for teachers, coaches and healthcare providers.
Sport organizations are advised to develop rules of conduct amongst their players and to enforce a zero tolerance policy for aggressive play.
[25] In 2016, the Canadian federal government allotted 1.4 million dollars for the development of national amateur sport guidelines related to back-to-play and back-to-study protocols following concussion injuries.
[26] The leading causes of death in youth sports are sudden cardiac arrest, concussion, heat illness and external sickling.
[21] Among young American athletes, more than half of trauma-related deaths are to football players, with track and field, baseball, boxing and soccer also having relatively high fatality rates.
