A Survey: Frequency of Spondylolysis or Spondylolisthesis in Young Athletes

The purpose of this survey research is to survey male and female high school varsity track athletes regarding the occurrence of low back pain, and then correlating the occurrence of a spondylolysis and/or spondylolisthesis with athletic involvement in the sport of track. A questionnaire was sent to 115 high school varsity track athletes in varsity track programs in the state of North Dakota. Only those athletes who participate in high jump, pole vault, discus, shot put, javelin, and 400M sprints or shorter were asked to take part in the survey. The survey results were unable to answer the research question stated in the purpose statement due to a number of limitations; however, the survey results were reported with traditional descriptive statistics described graphically in table form. Suggestions for improving outcome of the survey results in this study are given in the discussion