Heads-Up: New Epidemiologic Data on Concussion Risk Now Available for 20 High School Sports :

With the fall high school sports season in full swing, concussion in contact and non-contact sports is certainly front and center in regard to questions we get from our patients and their families. How common are concussions in the various sports played by high school students? Kerr et al. (10.1542/peds.2019-2180) provide us with recent data in a study being published this week in our journal.  The authors looked at 20 different high school sports over a period of 5 school years, from 2013-14 to 2017-18, with data obtained from a sample of high school athletic trainers who reported injuries into the National High School Sports-Related Injury Surveillance Study.  Overall, there were 9,542 concussions, for an overall risk of 4.17 concussions per 10,000 athletic exposures (AEs).  If you think that football had the highest risk, you are correct (33.19 to 39.07 per 10,000 AEs), although the good news is that the risk of concussion in practices decreased over the study period.  More good news is the reductions in the risk of recurrent concussions. What about gender? Think that male athletes are getting more concussions than females playing a comparable sport?  Think again for both primary and recurrent concussion rates. Why would this be?  The authors offer some interesting thoughts about the changes that were observed.  There is a playing field worth of data in this study of changes not only in risk, but diagnosis and management in a variety of high school sports.  Once you have read it, you’ll score big points by sharing it with the coaches and athletic trainers at your local high school.  Tackle the information provided in this comprehensive collection of data, and then pass it on to your colleagues, coaches, trainers, and the young athletes in your practice.