Overuse injuries and burnout in youth sports: a position statement from the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine

Abstract

### Background Youth sport participation offers many benefits including the development of self-esteem, peer socialisation and general fitness. However, an emphasis on competitive success, often driven by goals of elite-level travel team selection, collegiate scholarships, Olympic and National team membership and even professional contracts, has seemingly become widespread. This has resulted in an increased pressure to begin high-intensity training at young ages. Such an excessive focus on early intensive training and competition at young ages rather than skill development can lead to overuse injury and burnout. ### Purpose To provide a systematic, evidenced-based review that will (1) assist clinicians in recognising young athletes at risk for overuse injuries and burnout; (2)delineate the risk factors and injuries that are unique to the skeletally immature young athlete; (3) describe specific high-risk overuse injuries that present management challenges and/or can lead to long-term health consequences; (4) summarise the risk factors and symptoms associated with burnout in young athletes; (5)provide recommendations on overuse injury prevention. ### Methodology Medical Subject Headings (MeSHs) and text words were searched on 26 March 2012 from MEDLINE, CINAHL and PsycINFO. The search yielded 953 unique articles. Additional articles were found using cross-referencing. The process was repeated on 10 July 2013 to review any new articles since the original search. Screening by the authors yielded a total of 208 relevant sources that were used for this article. Recommendations were classified using the Strength of Recommendation Taxonomy (SORT) grading system. ### Definition of overuse injury Overuse injuries occur due to repetitive submaximal loading of the musculoskeletal system when rest is not adequate to allow for structural adaptation to take place. Injury can involve the muscle-tendon unit, bone, bursa, neurovascular structures and the physis. Overuse injuries unique to young athletes include apophyseal injuries and physeal stress injuries. ### Epidemiology It is estimated that 27 million US youth between 6 and 18 years of age participate in …