The Role of Level of Play in Concussions in High School Athletes

Details

• Alternative Title:
  J Public Health Manag Pract
• Personal Author:
  Waltzman, Dana ; DePadilla, Lara ; Breiding, Matthew ; Pierpoint, Lauren ; Collins, Christy
• Description:
  Objectives: ; To examine level of play (LOP) as a risk factor for concussion severity and recovery-related outcomes among high school athletes, stratified by sex, and among boys, by sport (football, non-football male sports). ; Design/Setting: ; Secondary analysis of data collected through the High School Reporting Information Online surveillance system for academic years 2007–2008 through 2018–2019. ; Participants: ; A total of 9916 concussions were reported between the academic years 2007–2008 and 2018–2019 from 9 sports (5189 from football; 2096 from non-football male sports; 2631 from female sports). ; Main Outcome Measure: ; Examined the association between LOP (Freshman, Junior Varsity JV, and Varsity teams) and concussion outcomes (number of concussion symptoms, symptom resolution time SRT, and time to return to play RTP). ; Results: ; Compared with Varsity football athletes, concussed JV football athletes had on average 0.19 fewer concussion symptoms, longer SRT (>1 week vs <1 week: odds ratio OR = 1.3; 95% confidence interval CI, 1.1–1.5), and longer RTP (1–3 weeks vs <1 week: OR = 1.5; 95% CI, 1.2–1.9; >3 weeks vs <1 week: OR = 1.6; 95% CI, 1.1–2.3). Compared with Varsity football athletes, Freshman football athletes had on average 0.48 fewer concussion symptoms, longer SRT (OR = 1.3; 95% CI, 1.1–1.5), and longer RTP (1–3 weeks vs <1 week: OR = 1.5; 95% CI, 1.1–2.0; >3 weeks vs <1 week: OR = 2.0; 95% CI, 1.3–3.0). Similarly, compared with female athletes on Varsity teams, concussed JV female athletes had longer RTP (1–3 weeks vs <1 week: OR = 1.8; 95% CI, 1.2–2.7). Trend analyses revealed an increase in the number of concussion symptoms between 2015–2016 and 2018–2019, a decrease between 2009–2010 and 2018–2019 for SRT of less than 1 week, and an increase between 2014–2015 and 2018–2019 for RTP of less than 1 week among Varsity football athletes. Among Varsity female athletes, there was a linear decrease during the study period for RTP of less than 1 week. ; Conclusions: ; Despite a higher number of symptoms overall and in recent years, Varsity football players had shorter RTP than Freshman and JV athletes.
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• Subjects:
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Female
  • Athletic Injuries
  • Brain Concussion
  • Football
  • Athletes
  • Schools
• Keywords:
  • athletes
  • concussion
  • high school
  • level of play
  • sex
• Source:
  J Public Health Manag Pract. 30(1):99-110
• Pubmed ID:
  37566801
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC10712835
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  CC999999/ImCDC/Intramural CDC HHSUnited States/
• Volume:
  30
• Issue:
  1
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/137172/cdc_137172_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 541.91 KB]
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:3e705f706cd1ef8da35672e619915aef7b0118d5de38cf788474cb1c0c1bcf0a279f5587cbc722248fb54dac5f73be254ca8c5b6563bb245027fdf15e6ad09be