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Focus on concussion risk in high school sports should not be limited to sports typically associated with concussion
Lincoln AE, Caswell SV, Almquist JL, et al. Am J Sports Med. 2011:39(5):958-963. Published online before print January 29, 2011. doi: 10.1177/0363546510392326.
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Treatment, detection and prevention techniques geared at handling concussions in high school athletes should focus on all sports rather than only those traditionally seen as associated with risk of concussion, according to an investigation performed at the MedStar Health Research Institute in Baltimore.
Andrew E. Lincoln, ScD, and colleagues performed a descriptive epidemiology study on data gathered prospectively from 25 schools in a large public high school system. All of the schools in the study used electronic medical records, with certified athletic trainers on hand for games and practices to record the injuries into the electronic system on a daily basis.
The investigators reported 2,651 concussions occurred in 10,926,892 athlete-exposures — a 0.24 per 1,000 incidence rate. Football was found to have the highest incidence rate (0.60) of all sports analyzed, and accounted for more than half of all concussions observed. Seventy-five percent of all concussions observed in the study occurred during boys’ sports. Among girls’ sports, the investigators reported concussions were most likely to occur in soccer. Girls’ soccer also displayed the second-highest incidence rate (0.35) of all 12 sports investigated.
During the 11-year study period, the rate of concussions increased 4.2-fold, according to the study abstract. In cases where girls’ and boys’ sports overlapped — baseball, softball, basketball, and soccer — girls were reported to have almost twice the risk of concussion when compared with boys. Rate of concussion increased during the study period in all of the 12 sports analyzed.
“The increase over time in all sports may reflect actual increased occurrence or greater coding sensitivity with widely disseminated guidance on concussion detection and treatment,” the authors wrote. “The high-participation collision sports of football and boys’ lacrosse warrant continued vigilance, but the findings suggest that focus on concussion detection, treatment and prevention should not be limited to those sports traditionally associated with concussion risk.”