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Abstract
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OBJECTIVE: American football is associated with the largest number of emergency department visits for pediatric sports-related traumatic brain injury, including concussions. Tackling is responsible for almost two-thirds of football concussions. Some have recommended implementing age restrictions on tackling in youth football. It is unclear whether the public would support such restrictions and what factors may drive support.
DESIGN: Cross-sectional. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: Data were collected from 4,053 adults in the summer wave of Porter Novelli's 2020 U.S. Consumer Styles survey. MAIN MEASURES: Respondents answered questions about when is a good age to start tackle football, past football playing history, concerns about safety, and the benefits and risks of playing football.
RESULTS: Most respondents believed that middle (32.8%) or high school (27.8%) was a good age to start playing tackle football. About one in five (19.8%) respondents reported children should never play tackle football. Certain groups of individuals were more likely to support having children start to play tackle football at high school age or above or to say that children should never play tackle football, including those with a bachelor's degree or more (rate ratio [RR]HS+ = 1.41, 95% confidence interval [CI]=1.14-1.76; RRNEVER = 2.70, 95% CI = 1.93-3.78), those who did not have children under 18 (RRHS+ = 1.54, 95% CI = 1.26-1.90; RRNEVER = 1.54, 95% CI = 1.14-2.07), those who were not football fans (RRNEVER = 3.07, 95% CI - 2.32-4.06), and those who were very (RRHS+ = 3.94, 95% CI = 2.87-5.42; RRNEVER = 11.52, 95% CI = 7.32-18.15) or somewhat concerned (RRHS+ = 1.88, 95% CI = 1.41-2.52) about kids' safety.
CONCLUSION: Despite acknowledging benefits of playing football, many adults expressed concern about safety and endorsed high school age and older or never as a good age to start playing tackle football, highlighting a disconnect with current football program practices regarding age.
Language: en |