Analysis of Injury and Concussion of Fall Sports

Abstract

Background: Injuries among high school athletes are an important health concern as it could lead to serious issues later on in life such as chronic injuries, depression, anxiety or death. We hypothesize that contact male sports such as Football and Soccer will have higher rates of total injury while Cheer and Tennis will have lower concussion and injury occurrences. Methods: Pitt County Athletic Training collected data to record daily activities at high schools in the county from August 1, 2014 to December 3, 2014 to include fall and winter sports. The certified athletic trainers tracked and recorded the daily activities of five high schools in Pitt County. The database served as an injury tracker that recorded information such as date, sport, level, event, injury, illness, medical care and referral. The database was reviewed and analyzed by sport in terms of upper extremity, lower extremity and non-extremity injury, as well as illness. Concussions were analyzed by gender, season, event and sport. Upper extremity injuries include those to the hands, elbow, thumb, lower arm, fingers or shoulder, while lower extremity injuries consist of injuries to the ankle, knee, lower leg, thigh, gluteals, toe or foot. Non-extremity injuries are injuries that occur to the brain (concussion), cervical spine, lumbar spine, ear, nose, mouth, back abdomen or chest and illnesses were recorded when athletes were experiencing heat illness, skin infection, asthma, respiratory condition, diabetes, or stomach discomfort. Results: 4,254 injuries occurred in 1,182 athletes among five of the high schools in Pitt County. Lower extremity injuries were the most prevalent with about 1,978 cases being reported, while only 1,524 cases of upper extremity injuries were reported. There were 361 cases of concussions, 239 injuries reported as other of other injuries (non-extremity injuries excluding the brain) and only 152 instances of an illness recorded. Varsity and junior varsity football reported the highest number of injuries among all five categories, while Track/Field/Cross Country had the next highest number of lower extremity injuries reporting 156 cases of this injury. Cheer also reported 59 incidents of concussion after both varsity and junior varsity football. Wrestlers reported 20 cases of illnesses while varsity football reported 84 and junior varsity football reported 41. More males experienced concussions than females and most concussions occurred at practice or during the regular season. Conclusion: In contrast to our prediction, Cheer had one of the highest concussion incidences among the sports excluding Football, which did have the highest concussion and injury occurrence. Our results show that more safety should be implemented in all sports to prevent and avoid the possible development of a disability or death in severe cases.