Outpatient Runners Clinic Visit Trends and Injury Characteristics Among 392 Child and Adolescent Patients: A 10-year Chart Review

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate clinic visits and running-related injury (RRI) characteristics among child and adolescent runners seeking care at an outpatient clinic over a 10-year time frame. Design: Retrospective chart review. Setting: Outpatient hospital-affiliated Injured Runners Clinic. Patients: Children and adolescent runners (6-17 years) with RRIs. Independent Variables: We examined electronic medical records (EMRs) among child and adolescent patients in the hospital database from 2011 to 2021 to obtain RRI characteristics and key demographic factors. Main Outcome Measures: We assessed volume and frequency of patient visits to the clinic by RRI characteristics. Chi square analyses were used to compare the proportion of clinic visits over time and injury trends by body region and diagnosis. Results: There were 392 patients (sex: 277 F; mean age: 16.1 ± 1.3 years) and an average of 5 clinic visits per diagnosis (5 ± 4 visits; min: 1 visit, max: 31 visits). Number of visits generally increased over time up to 2016 but declined most drastically during the years of the pandemic (2020-2021; χ2 = 644, P < 0 .001). Of the 654 new injury diagnoses, 77.68% were attributed to repetitive stress. Bone stress injuries to the tibia were the most common RRI (χ2 = 1940, P < 0 .001; N = 132; 20.2% of all injuries) and constituted most of the clinic visits (χ2 = 9271, P < 0 .001; N = 591; 25.4% of all visits). Conclusion: We identified that adolescents with overuse injuries, particularly bone stress injuries to the tibia, constituted most of the visits to the outpatient healthcare setting. Clinicians should emphasize injury prevention efforts in clinical practice to reduce RRI burden.