In the last decade, there has been an increased awareness about the dangers of a concussion to a high school athlete. Past athletes would have just been told to “rub some dirt in it” and get back out to finish the game. Many protocols today have been changed so that if a student is even suspected of having suffered a concussion, they are removed from the game and evaluated.
Statistics on Concussions in High School Sports
1. The number of youth who are treated in emergency rooms every day because of a sports-related injury: 8,000.
2. The amount of concussions in all high school sports is rising by 15% annually.
3. There is a higher risk of sports injuries to a student athlete if they live in a rural environment.
4. 62%. That’s the percentage of injuries that occur to high school athletes while they are at practice.
5. 47% of schools in the United States fall short of the federally recommended nurse-to-student ratio. It is not uncommon for a school to operate without a nurse on staff.
6. 96% of the general population believes that it is important for student athletes to be medically evaluated before playing sports or returning from an injury.
7. High school athletes suffer 2 million injures, 500k doctor visits and 30k hospitalizations each year.
8. 1 in 2 second impact injuries that occur should there be another concussion after a student athlete returns too soon after a previous concussion will result in a fatality.
9. Girls who play basketball in high school suffer 240% more concussions than boys who play basketball.
10. 15.8% of football players who sustain a concussion severe enough to cause loss of consciousness return to play the same day.
11. The number of concussions that high school athletes are estimated to happen annually: 400,000.
12. Girls in the 10-19 age demographic sustain sports- and recreation-related TBIs most often while playing soccer, basketball, or while cycling.
13. There were 120 sports-related deaths of young athletes in 2008-2009. There were also 50 in 2010 and another 40 in 2011.
14. There are 3x as many catastrophic football injuries among high school athletes as college athletes.
15. 42%. That’s the percentage of high schools in the United States right now that have access to athletic training services.
16. Concussion rates more than doubled among students age 8-19 participating in sports like basketball, soccer, and football between 1997-2007 despite their being lower levels of youth participation.
17. More than 248,000 children visited hospital emergency departments in 2009 for concussions or a suspected TBI.
18. For boys, the rates of concussion for helmeted sports are 2x that of sports that don’t require the use of a helmet.
19. Repeat concussions represented 11% of all concussions to high school students.
20. For high school athletes with repeat concussions, the median interval between concussions was 316 days, but 1 in 5 athletes had two concussions just 30 days apart from each other.
Understanding the Seriousness of Concussions
Concussions are a serious business. Just one concussion can alter a life. The initial effects of a concussion will generally go away in 7-10 days, but spells of dizziness, headaches, and other complications can last for weeks or months afterward. Having one concussion also makes it a lot easier to have a second concussion. Every subsequent concussion, in fact, offers an increased risk of additional concussions in the future.
It is a good thing that professional athletes are taking concussions seriously, because that will help high school athletes take it seriously as well. The issue, however, is that the professional athlete has access to a lot of medical resources that the high school athlete does not have. Many high schools don’t even have access to athletic training services. Medical appointments typically go through a parent’s health insurance and there can be numerous delays in getting seen. It all adds up to inadequate care, even when a concussion has been recognized, and that can cause a student athlete to sit out the entire season.
As the statistics on high school concussions show, recognition of a concussion is just one step in the process of treating it. Proactive prevention and rapid treatment must also be part of the awareness package to help begin reducing the injuries that our student athletes are suffering.
Threat and Risk of High School Sports
What is most interesting about the data on high school athletes and concussions is that many of the increases that have been seen in the statistics have come about since 2005. What is significant about this? It is the year when numerous high schools switched their athletic training structure so that there were more full-time employees working with the students.
It is suspected that the rates of high school concussions have always been this high. The only problem is that it was never documented in the past, so rates were under-reported. Combine this with the more aggressive tactics that are being taken in athletics today, along with changes in athlete profiles so student athletes are faster, bigger, and stronger, and there is a good chance that a bad hit could cause a concussion.
There’s no easy answer to solving the issue of concussions in high school sports. Any athletic activity has a certain amount of risk that is associated with it. Even recreational activities can result in concussions under the right conditions. That means we must focus on preventative education for high school athletes so they can recognize the signs and symptoms of a concussion, no matter how slight it might be. We must also so the same for coaches and teachers to make sure students don’t go back into a game and literally put their lives at risk by doing so.
No game, tournament, or event is worth a lifetime of disabilities or taking on an increased risk of death. The more we know about statistics like these and are able to do something about them, the healthier our sons, daughters, siblings, and friends are going to be while they play a sport they love.