Children’s Hospital Boston and their Concussion Clinic just published a study about concussions. They found that there were 136,000 sports related concussions in high school athletes during the 2008-2009 school year. It appeared in the December issue of the Journal of Sports Medicine. Here are some quick stats:
- 76% came from contact with another player
- 53% of those were head-to-head
- Most common symptoms
- Headache 94%
- Dizziness 75%
- Concentration 57%
- Confusion 46%
- 25% of concussed had amnesia
- 5% reported loss of consciousness
- 83% recovered in one week
- 27% within 24 hours
- 26% of the concussed were assessed with neuropsychological tests
A good start, but it needs to be known this is an extremely limited study. Sure, a subject pool of 136,000 is good, but that is only those reported. It has been our estimation that upwards of 70% of concussions are not reported or hidden by the athlete. Remember, this injury is mainly a subjective injury. We as professionals are RELYING upon teens to give us the truth, ha!
I think it is important to note the massive difference (statistically speaking) between amnesia and loss of consciousness. The stigma was that you had to be KO’ed to be concussed, as we have said and now see with this study that is not the truth.
The Concussion Blog 