Football (Soccer) Safety Equipment Use and Parental Attitudes Toward Safety Equipment in a Community Youth Sports Program

Abstract

While a growing number of children are playing football (soccer), there are limited data on prevalence of injuries, actual use of football safety equipment (SE), and parental attitudes about football SE. We distributed a self-administered survey by mail to parents of all players enrolled in a community recreation youth football program. Parents of 865 children responded. Overall, 32 (3.7%) children were reported as having injuries requiring medical/dental evaluation. Upper/lower extremities were the most commonly injured sites. Shinguards (SGs) were the only equipment commonly used. While there was high parental support for SG use (97.4%) and moderate support for mouthguards (MGs; 53.8%), there was less support for other SE. Many parents were unfamiliar with available SE, but they were mostly willing to pay for it. In a community youth sports program, reports of football injuries were low as was the use of football SE other than SGs.

Keywords:

• soccer
• safety equipment
• parental attitudes
• survey research
• prevention

Acknowledgments

We express our warm thanks to Mr. Larry Dishman, coordinator of team sports, and the administration and staff of the Ann Arbor Community Education & Recreation. This study would never have been possible without the generosity of our study participants. This study was supported by the American Academy of Family Physician Foundation and the Joint AAFP/F-AAFP Grant Awards Council (JGAC), Grant # N005998, Sponsor # G0411RS. The authors have no personal or professional relationship with any company or manufacturer that might benefit from the results of this study.