Background: Skin infections have long been a reported problem among high school athletes, particularly wrestlers. There has yet to be a national study describing the epidemiology of skin infections across multiple high school sports.
Objective: We sought to report the epidemiology of skin infections among US high school athletes.
Methods: High school sports-related skin infections resulting in time loss were reported by a convenience sample of US high schools from 2009/2010 through 2013/2014 via High School Reporting Information Online.
Results: During the study, 474 skin infections were reported among 20,858,781 athlete exposures, a rate of 2.27 per 100,000 athlete exposures. The largest number of skin infections occurred in wrestling (73.6%) followed by football (17.9%). The most common infections were bacterial (60.6%) and tinea (28.4%) infections. Body parts most often affected were the head/face (25.3%) followed by the forearm (12.7%).
Limitations: The study included only high schools with National Athletic Trainers' Association-affiliated athletic trainers, which may limit generalizability. However, using athletic trainers as data reporters improved data quality.
Conclusions: Skin infections are an important subset of high school sports-related adverse events. An understanding of the epidemiology of sports-related skin infections should promote awareness and drive evidence-based prevention efforts.
Keywords: athletes; competition; high school; injury; prevention; skin infections; sports.
Published by Elsevier Inc.