Epidemiology of Cheerleading Stunt-Related Injuries in the United States (Original Research) (Report‪)‬

Cheerleading has experienced a dramatic increase in popularity during the past 3 decades. (1) Three decades ago, cheerleaders only performed very basic maneuvers, such as toe-touch jumps, the splits, and claps. (1,2) Today, many cheerleaders not only perform these basic maneuvers but have added gymnastic tumbling runs and partner stunts, which consist of human pyramids, lifts, catches, and tosses (eg, basket tosses). (3) This increase in the difficulty of maneuvers being performed by cheerleaders has been accompanied by an increase in the number of cheerleading injuries. Shields and Smith (4) reported that cheerleading injuries to children 5 to 18 years of age in the United States increased 110% from 10 900 in 1990 to 22 900 in 2002. The gymnastics element of cheerleading, specifically partner stunts and pyramids, is thought to be associated with the greatest risk for cheerleading injury. (5) Compared with other sports, cheerleading injuries have not received the same attention with regard to tracking and reportability. (6) Few epidemiologic studies of cheerleading injuries exist in the literature, and none of the existing studies (4-6) describe the epidemiology of cheerleading injuries by type of cheerleading team (All Star, college, high school, middle school, elementary school, or recreation league) and type of cheerleading event (practices, pep rallies, athletic events, or cheerleading competitions). Furthermore, none of these existing studies focused primarily on cheerleading stunt-related injuries.