The Timing of Concussions During High School Sporting Events

Identifying when, where, and why most concussions occur is important to later implement changes to reduce the risk of concussion. One factor that has been ignored is the timing when a concussion occurs during practices and games. Therefore, the authors aimed to identify when during a practice or competition a concussion is likely to occur in high school sports. They used data from the Michigan High School Athletic Association’s Head Injury Reporting System, which collected data on 4,314 concussions from 182,719 athletes across 13 sports during the 2015-2016 academic year. A healthcare provider diagnosed each concussion that occurred during a sanctioned practice or competition and required an athlete to be withheld from sport. An athletic trainer, coach, or school official reported if a concussion occurred during the beginning, middle, or final third of practice or competition. The authors examined the occurrence of concussion overall and for each sport separately and then checked if concussions were more common at the beginning, middle, or end of practices and games. The authors found that ~2.4 athletes for every 100 athletes experienced a concussion that year. Men’s football (4.9 per 100 athletes) and women’s soccer (3.0 per 100 athletes) had the highest rate of concussion among males and females. An athlete was more likely to sustain a concussion during the middle (4.9 times more) and end (3.3 times more) versus the beginning of games and practices combined. An athlete was also 50% more likely to sustain a concussion during the middle versus the end of a game or practice. Similar patterns were found in practices and games when separated.