Cheerleading injuries are few, but often serious

By Kate Bass, B.Sc.Dec 11 2015

Colorado School of Public Health experts revealed yesterday that cheerleading is one of the safest high school sports, according to an analysis of school sports-related injuries. However, it also indicated that cheerleading injuries, when they do occur, may be more severe than those seen in other sports. This is the first study to assess injury rates in high school cheerleading relative to other sports.

We found that cheerleading is actually relatively safe compared to the other high school sports we studied, ranking 18th out of the 22 sports we looked at in terms of overall injury rate."

Dustin Currie, researcher and doctoral student at the Colorado School of Public Health at Colorado University, Anschutz.

Researchers analyzed 5 years of data from an average of 107 high schools, as recorded by a US online High School Sports-Related Injury Surveillance System. Over a million participations by females in cheerleading were reported and 752 injuries occurred (mostly during practice).

This injury rate was significantly lower than that of all other sports combined and all other girls sports combined. The most common injury was concussion, accounting for almost a third of injuries, followed by ligament sprains (one fifth of injuries).

Only 10% of the injuries were fractures. The injury rate was much higher among male cheerleaders (25 in 18,784 exposures) and usually occurred during dismounts in stunt acts.

The study also found that, despite having a low overall injury rate compared with other sports, cheerleading was associated with the second highest proportion of injuries requiring three or more weeks off. This indicates that, although injuries during cheerleading are relatively uncommon, when they do occur they may be more severe.

Cheerleading has historically been considered as a sideline activity, rather than a sport requiring actual athletic abilities. However, its popularity has soared in recent years and routines have become increasingly complex in order to out-perform the competition.

Consequently, the vast majority of today's high school cheerleaders are athletes. This study highlights the need for cheerleading to be officially classified as a sport in order to improve safety standards.

Mr Currie commented "Prevention efforts should focus on activities placing cheerleaders at risk for severe injuries...As athletes, cheerleaders should have access to the same safety standards as any other sport".

The states of California and Colorado recognize cheerleading as a sport and have better safety records than states where cheerleading is treated as an after-school club.