AAP calls attention to athletic burnout, recovery among children

Key takeaways:

• A new AAP clinical report focuses on avoiding burnout and promoting recovery for student-athletes.
• The authors took issue with the “professionalization” of youth sports in recent years.

Approximately 70% of children and teens drop out of organized sports by age 13 years, the AAP highlighted in a new clinical report published in Pediatrics.

The report, authored by members of the AAP’s Council on Sports Medicine and Fitness, updated a previous 2007 report that addressed how excessive training can lead to overuse injury, overtraining, impaired well-being and decreased quality of life.

“Although over 60 million children and adolescents currently participate in organized sports, attrition rates remain staggeringly high,” the authors of the new report wrote. “Discontinuation of sports during childhood plays a role in the more than 75% of adolescents in the United States who fail to meet physical activity recommendations.”

According to the report, “professionalization” of youth sports is considered widely responsible for the extensive training and pressures related to specializing in a single sport that could lead to overuse injuries, overtraining and burnout.

“Sports are such a powerful and fun motivator to keep youth physically and mentally active, but some youth may feel pressure from parents, coaches and others to measure success only by performance,” Joel S. Brenner, MD, MPH, FAAP, a co-author of the report, told Healio. “Pediatricians can help families determine what sport participation practices will benefit children most and help encourage physical activity as a lifelong pursuit.”

Brenner and colleagues emphasized helping children who participate in sports avoid burnout and recover from play by “[encouraging] athletic autonomy and intrinsic motivation, measur[ing] success on participation and effort, and foster[ing] positive experiences with parents, coaches, and peers, all of which can help prevent burnout.”

The recommendations include suggesting that athletes try to take 1 to 2 days off per week from competition and sport-specific training for recovery, encouraging the athlete to participate on a single team during a season, and promoting nutrition and sleep to optimize recovery.

They also recommended that clinicians conduct preparticipation exams for all student-athletes, encourage their patients’ athletic autonomy and promote skill development while avoiding overtraining and overscheduling. They included a list of common overuse injuries in young athletes, such as bone stress fractures and reactions, tendinopathy, apophysitis, patellofemoral pain syndrome and Panner’s disease.

“It’s important to teach our athletes to focus on wellness and to listen to their bodies,” Brenner said. “We can encourage mindfulness, time away from sports and other ways to prevent injury or burnout. If you have questions, always talk with your pediatrician.”

References:

American Academy of Pediatrics highlights causes of injury, overtraining and burnout in youth sports. https://www.aap.org/en/news-room/news-releases/aap/2023/american-academy-of-pediatrics-highlights-causes-of-injury-overtraining-and-burnout-in-youth-sports/. Published Jan. 22, 2024. Accessed Jan. 31, 2024.

Brenner JS, et al. Pediatrics. 2024;doi:10.1542/peds.2023-065129.