Citation

Lynall RC, Campbell KR, Wasserman EB, Dompier TP, Kerr Z. J. Neurotrauma 2017; 34(19): 2684-2690.

Affiliation

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Exercise and Sport Science, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States ; Zkerr@email.unc.edu.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, Mary Ann Liebert Publishers)

DOI

10.1089/neu.2017.5032

PMID

28490228

Abstract

Our purpose was to determine concussion mechanism and activity differences between 3 cohorts of football players; youth, high school, and college. Participants in this prospective cohort study included youth (ages 5-14, 118 teams, 310 team-seasons), high school (96 teams, 184 team-seasons), and college (34 teams, 71 team-seasons) football players. Athletic trainers collected athlete-exposure (AE) and concussion data during the 2012-2014 seasons. Injury mechanism referred to the object that made contact with the concussed player, resulting in the concussion. Injury activity referred to the type of football specific activity the player was involved in when the concussion was sustained. Injury proportion ratios (IPR) compared distributions of concussion mechanisms and activities among age levels. 1,429 concussions were reported over 1,981,284 AE across all levels (Rate: 0.72/1000AE). Overall, most concussions were due to player contact (84.7%). During games, a greater proportion of youth football concussions (14.7%) were due to surface contact than high school (7.3%, IPR=2.02; 95% CI: 1.10-3.72) and college (7.1%, IPR=2.07, 95% CI:1.02-4.23) football. Compared to college football concussions (90.2%), a smaller proportion of youth (80.0%, IPR=0.89, 95%CI: 0.79-0.99) and high school (83.2%, IPR=0.92, 95%CI: 0.86-0.99) football concussions were due to player contact. A greater proportion of game youth football concussions (42.1%) occurred while being tackled than high school (23.2%, IPR=1.81, 95%CI: 1.34-2.45) and college (23.0%, IPR=1.83, 95%CI: 1.29-2.62) football.

FINDINGS were similar during practices. Compared to college football game concussions (15.8%), a smaller proportion of youth (6.3%, IPR=0.40, 95%CI: 0.17-0.93) and high school (9.5%, IPR=0.60, 95%CI: 0.38-0.95) football game concussions occurred while being blocked. Concussion mechanism and activity differences should be considered when developing concussion prevention and sport-safety methods specific to different age levels in order to maximize effectiveness.

Keywords: American football;

Language: en

Keywords

HEAD TRAUMA; PEDIATRIC BRAIN INJURY; PROSPECTIVE STUDY