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Female athletes are significantly more likely to suffer overuse injuries compared to their male counterparts, according to a new study.

Researchers from The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center analyzed 3,000 male and female injury cases over a seven year period across 20 high school sports and found that girls are significantly more likely suffer stress fractures, tendonitis and joint pain. Researchers said this is important as these injuries are most often caused by performing the same motion repeatedly.

"These young people spend more time playing sports both in competition and in practice. So, there's a correlation there between the amount of time that they're playing and the increased incidence of injuries," Dr. Thomas Best of The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center said in a news release.

"During this point of their lives, this is when girls are developing bones at the greatest rate," Best added. "It's incredibly important that they're getting the proper amounts of calcium and vitamin D."

The findings were published in April in the Journal of Pediatrics.