GAO evaluates youth concussion databases

In a recent report, the Goverment Accountability Office reviewed national efforts to track concussions in youth sports (highlights). The report evaluates local and national laws designed to keep young athletes safe, but the most immediately useful component may be the identification and evaluation of three incomplete national databases now being maintained.

High School Reporting Information Online database

Provides national estimates of occurrence of concussion, it covers only 20 sports for high schools with certified athletic trainers. It may underestimate occurrence because some athletes may be reluctant to report symptoms of a possible concussion to avoid being removed from a game.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission’s National Electronic Injury Surveillance System

Provides national estimates only on concussions treated in an emergency room.

The National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research database

Provides information only on cases of concussion with serious complications and cannot provide national estimates of the occurrence of all concussions.

Related

Concussion more likely when hit is unexpected

May. 19th, 2010 by Andrew Van Dam · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Hot Health Headline, Studies 

There’s anecdotal evidence that athletes are less likely to get concussions if they were ready for the impact before it arrived, but it’s not an easy premise to test. The primary concerns are ethical ones, of course, as it’s hard to justify enrolling patients in a condition that calls for “sneaking up and, when they’re least expecting it, whacking them in the skull hard enough to deliver a concussion.”

youth-hockey

Photo by sphilp1225 via Flickr

Fortunately, researchers for a study published in the June issue of Pediatrics found a clever way to isolate those conditions in a place where they “naturally” occur, namely a youth hockey game.

They started by fitting the young players’ helmets with monitors to measure impact data, then let them play. Researchers then divided the impacts into two categories: Those that occurred along the boards where players expect to be checked, and those that happened mid-ice and were thus more likely to come as a surprise.

Chicago Tribune blogger Julie Deardorff, who alerted us to the study, describes the results:

Of 666 body collisions, 421 took place along the playing boards, and the remaining 245 hits occurred on the open ice. On average, the open-ice collisions were more severe than those occurring along the playing boards, the study authors found.

Deardorff then evaluates youth hockey impacts relative to those in other sports, and ends with the recommendation that youth hockey players “skate through” checks, and keep moving instead of staying put along the boards and absorbing all the kinetic energy of the blow.

House holds hearing on brain injuries in NFL

Oct. 28th, 2009 by Pia Christensen · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Government, Hot Health Headline 

The House of Representatives is holding a hearing on “Legal Issues Relating to Football Head Injuries” that is being webcast on C-SPAN.org.

The witness list includes NFL commissioner Roger S. Goodell as well as the director of the players association, team executives, doctors, neurologists, retired players, families of former players and safety advocates.

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The New York Times: NFL Data Reinforces Dementia Links