Center for Injury Research and Policy

HIGH SCHOOL RIO™

FAST FACTS ABOUT HIGH SCHOOL RIO™
For fast facts about High School RIO™ and the National High School Sports-Related Injury Surveillance Study click on these links of interest.

High School RIO™ Fact Sheet
High School RIO™ Accomplishments
High School RIO™ Informational Pamphlet

SEE HOW RIO™ WORKS
See High School RIO™ in action. View the demo site.

Use "demo" as the username and password to enter the site
(note: the change password function has been disabled)

BE A PART OF RIO™
To support High School RIO™ click here.

WHAT IS HIGH SCHOOL RIO™?
High School RIO™ is the internet-based data collection tool used in the National High School Sports-Related Injury Surveillance Study. This study, currently the only surveillance study of all time-loss injuries in a national sample of US high school athletes, was first implemented during the 2005/06 academic year and has been maintained annually. First established as a high school correlate to the highly successful NCAA Injury Surveillance System, the National High School Sports-Related Injury Surveillance Study has evolved over time to best fulfill the needs of the high school sports community of student athletes, parents, pediatric sports medicine clinicians, high school athletic directors, local/state high school athletic associations/administrators and the NFHS (National Federation of State High School Associations).

High School RIO™ captures athletic exposure (number of athlete practices and number of athlete competitions per week), injury (body site, diagnosis, severity, etc) and injury event (mechanism, activity, position/event, field/court location, etc) data weekly throughout the academic year using certified athletic trainers (ATCs) as data reporters.

Dr. R. Dawn Comstock and her staff analyze this data to describe the rates, patterns and trends of high school sports-related injuries. Such epidemiologic analysis is the necessary first step toward the development, implementation and evaluation of evidence-based, targeted prevention programs to reduce the number and/or severity of injuries among high school athletes.

Stated more simply, by understanding the who, what, why, where and how of injuries, we can offer recommendations to make sports as safe as possible for student athletes. Thus, High School RIO™ data is used to encourage as many student athletes as possible to safely play sports which will in turn increase physical activity, improve physical fitness levels and lead to life-long healthy behaviors.

WHICH SPORTS ARE STUDIED?

Boys’ Sports	Years Studied
Baseball	2005/06-2010/11
Basketball	2005/06-2010/11
Cheerleading	2009/10-2010/11
Football	2005/06-2010/11
Ice Hockey	2008/09-2010/11
Lacrosse	2008/09-2010/11
Soccer	2005/06-2010/11
Swimming & Diving	2008/09-2010/11
Track & Field	2008/09-2010/11
Volleyball	2009/10-2010/11
Wrestling	2005/06-2010/11
Girls’ Sports	Years Studied
Basketball	2005/06-2010/11
Cheerleading	2009/10-2010/11
Field Hockey	2008/09-2010/11
Gymnastics	2008/09-2010/11
Lacrosse	2008/09-2010/11
Softball	2005/06-2010/11
Soccer	2005/06-2010/11
Swimming & Diving	2008/09-2010/11
Track & Field	2008/09-2010/11
Volleyball	2005/06-2010/11

HOW DOES THE STUDY WORK?
Weekly throughout the academic year certified athletic trainers at study schools log onto the study website to report data.

See High School RIO™ in action. View the demo site.

Use "demo" as the username and password to enter the site
(note: the change password function has been disabled).

HISTORY OF THE NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS-RELATED INJURY SURVEILLANCE STUDY*
This important ongoing prospective surveillance study was originally developed in 2005 by Dr. Comstock with methodological consultation/guidance/support from several sources including the following:

The National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS), Sports Medicine Advisory Committee (Dr. Vito Perriello and Jerry Diehl)
The National Collegiate Athletic Association, Injury Surveillance System (Randy Dick, MS)
The National Center for Catastrophic Sport Injury Research (Dr. Fred Mueller)
The National Athletic Trainers’ Association Secondary School Athletic Trainers’ Committee (Jon Almquist, ATC)
The US Consumer Product Safety Commission, Division of Data Systems (Dr. Art McDonald)
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (Dr. Julie Gilchrist)

WHO SUPPORTS HIGH SCHOOL RIO™ AND THE NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS-RELATED INJURY SURVEILLANCE STUDY?
This study is funded through a combination of sponsor sources including research grants and unrestricted research donations.

2011-12 SPONSORS

20010-11 SPONSORS

2009-10 SPONSORS

PRIOR SPONSORS

Dr. Comstock is grateful to these sponsors for their generous support of High School RIO™ and the National High School Sports-Related Injury Surveillance Study. Their contributions have allowed this important surveillance study to continue uninterrupted since 2005/06. Continuous maintenance of surveillance systems over time is crucial as one of the most powerful uses of surveillance studies is the tracking of trends over time.

If you or your organization would like to support High School RIO™ click here.

HOW IS HIGH SCHOOL RIO™ DATA USED TO KEEP STUDENT ATHLETES AS SAFE AS POSSIBLE?
Dr. Comstock and her staff work closely with the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS), Sports Medicine Advisory Committee and individual sport Rules Committees. In addition to providing data upon request to the NFHS as emerging issues arise, Dr. Comstock prepares annual summary reports (see below), prepares more detailed sports specific reports upon request for individual sport Rules Committee meetings and attends the NFHS Sports Medicine Advisory Committee meetings as an Ex-Officio member in order to provide this committee with detailed reports upon request. This interaction with the NFHS gives Dr. Comstock the opportunity to provide the NFHS with the data needed to drive evidence-based discussions of potential risk management/safety efforts (rule changes, improved protective equipment, educational programs, etc) while also giving Dr. Comstock the opportunity to receive input from the various NFHS committees on ways to update/improve High School RIO™ to make it as useful a tool as possible for the high school sports community.

Dr. Comstock has also shared High School RIO™ data upon request with the NATA, NOCSAE, NCAA, researchers from other academic institutions and the CDC, NCIPC. If you or your organization would like access to High School RIO™ data please contact Dr. Comstock at highschoolrio@nationwidechildrens.org or (614) 722-2400.

In addition, Dr. Comstock and her staff share High School RIO™ data with the high school sports community through a variety of means detailed below.

STUDY REPORTS

Below are links to the annual summary reports from the National High School Sports-Related Injury Surveillance Study.

Original HS RIO™ study of 100 nationally representative schools reporting for the initial 9 sports of interest

Expanded HS RIO™ study of a convenience sample of US schools reporting for all sports of interest

COLLABORATORS
Nationwide Children's Hospital Sports Medicine offers a complete understanding of the student athlete. Their staff of doctors, athletic trainers and physical therapists are trained to provide age-appropriate care for their patients. They emphasize the importance of early injury recognition and treatment in order to prevent recurring injuries. In addition to treatment, they partner with parents and coaches to focus on injury prevention, conditioning and age-appropriate activities. The Sports Medicine and Orthopedic Center in Westerville is the only dedicated pediatric sports medicine facility in Ohio.

HOW CAN YOU SUPPORT HIGH SCHOOL RIO™ AND THE NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS-RELATED INJURY SURVEILLANCE STUDY?
Given the current statistics on childhood obesity in the US, everyone can understand how important it is for us to promote sports as a fun way for children and adolescents to incorporate daily physical activity as part of a healthy lifestyle. Simply stated, we need more kids to play sports! However, there is a risk of injury associated with any physical activity, including sports. To get kids to adopt and maintain sports participation we need to make sports as safe as possible for kids to play. Sports injuries are not just "part of the game" or "the price you have to pay to play" – we can prevent sports injuries and/or decrease their severity. To do so we need good data that has been collected over time to identify rates, patterns and trends. Currently, the High School RIO™ surveillance tool is the only system available to track all time-loss injuries among a large national sample of US high school athletes. We need to keep this important surveillance study going!

Your donation will help us prevent unnecessary sports injuries by driving lasting positive efforts to ensure high school sports are as safe as possible for kids to play.

We have the experience.
We have the tools.
We have the successful track record.
We need your support!

Click here to become a part of this important research

FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION, CONTACT:
Dawn Comstock, PhD
Principal Investigator
highschoolrio@nationwidechildrens.org
(614) 722-2400
(614) 722-2448 Fax

* Links to other organizations found at this site are provided solely as a service to our users. These links do not constitute an endorsement of these organizations or their programs by the Center for Injury Research and Policy, The Research Institute or Nationwide Children's Hospital, and none should be inferred. The Center for Injury Research and Policy is not responsible for the content of the individual organization web pages found at these links.