Trends in Soccer-Related Craniomaxillofacial Injuries, United States 2003-2022

Soccer is one of the most popular sports worldwide. However, it has risks of injury to craniomaxillofacial regions such as the head, neck, and mouth. The purpose of this study is to determine which demographic and injury characteristics among soccer players with craniomaxillofacial injuries are associated with increased hospitalizations. This is a retrospective cohort study utilizing the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System. Subjects included in this study experienced an injury to a craniomaxillofacial area from soccer between January 1, 2003, and December 31, 2022. The predictor variables included demographics (age, sex, race) and injury characteristics (craniomaxillofacial region, diagnosis). The primary outcome variable was injury severity defined as hospitalization outcome after injury (yes/no). The secondary outcome variable was the trends in the incidence of soccer craniomaxillofacial injuries over time (2003-2022). The covariates were the heterogenous set of predictor variables in this study. Descriptive statistics and univariate analyses were computed. Survey-weighted univariate and multivariate logistic regression were used to measure the association of demographic and injury variables with hospitalization outcome. Statistical significance was defined as P