Cheerleaders get injured less frequent than other sportspersons, but the severity of those injuries is worse. A research has suggested that cheerleaders can be secured against injuries with more awareness.

Jumping and throwing is a part of cheerleading, and a single mistake can end up in severe injury. Instead of considering the cheerleading a school activity, it should be taken as a sport, according to the research. It will bring more safety requirements and practice venues if considered as a sport.

Dustin Currie from the Colorado School of Public Health said, “Our research shows that at the national level in terms of typical day-to-day sports participation cheerleading is not particularly dangerous and appears perhaps to be even safer than other sports”.

During the study, the researchers examined data collected bythe National High School Sports-Related Injury Surveillance Study. They found that injury rates in cheerleading were on 18th place in a list of 22 sports. The injury ratein cheerleading was 0.71 per 1000 athlete-exposures. The researchers said that when it comes to competition, injury rate surges. It was 0.85 per 1000 exposures and 0.76 per 1000 exposures in competition and practices, but for performance, the rate was 0.49 per 1000.

The researchers explained that concussions were the most common injury. It represented about one-third of all theinjuries. Ligament sprains with 20.2% were on the second spot, while muscle strains at 14.2% and fractures at 10.3% were third and fourth most common injuries during cheerleading, as per the researchers.