Shocking but true…seem to be the findings of a study on gymnastics, which say the rate of injuries among young gymnasts is similar to high injury rates in sports considered much more dangerous, as hockey.

“Most people don’t realize that gymnastics can be such a dangerous sport,” Dr. Lara B. McKenzie of the Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, the study’s lead author told Reuters.

According to the study published in the April issue of Pediatrics, almost 27,000 children a year received medical attention in emergency rooms for gymnastics-related injuries from 1990 to 2005.

“Many parents do not typically think of gymnastics as a dangerous sport. In fact, many parents consider it an activity. Yet, gymnastics has the same clinical incidence of catastrophic injuries as ice hockey,” said Dr. McKenzie.

For the study, Dr, McKenzie and her colleagues analyzed data on children aged 6 to 17 treated in U.S. emergency rooms for gymnastics-related injuries between 1990 and 2005. There were almost 426,000 patients, which means an annual rate of 26,600.

The study found that girls were more likely than boys to sustain injuries, 82.1 percent. Also, 40 percent of all injuries happened at schools, while younger athletes were more likely to be injured at home than older athletes. The injury was to the upper extremities in 42.3 percent of cases. Lower extremities were involved in 33.8 percent of cases, head and neck in 12.9 percent and trunk in 10.4 percent.

Almost 44.5 percent of cases were strains or sprains, then fractures or dislocation happened in 30.4 percent of cases, abrasion in 15.6 percent, laceration in 3.7 percent, concussion head injury in 1.7 percent and “others” in 4.7 percent.

Only 3 percent of those treated were hospitalized.

One thing seems to have improved: the number of injuries fell from 28,700 in 1990 to 21,500 in 2005. “This could be due to a number of things, but possibly increased attention to the sport, the use of more effective safety equipment. But the bottom line is there's still more to do” to reduce injury rates among young gymnasts, McKenzie said.

For preventing such injuries, all parents with children doing gymnastics are urged to make sure their coaches, spotters and trainers have undergone safety training. Also, children should never do gymnastics unsupervised.