The football season is in full swing and concerns over the danger of players suffering from concussions come with the territory.
A new study on high school football players suggests that if an individual gets hit on the head, irrespective of the spot, it is still dangerous as concussion can take time to heal. Moreover, the period of healing is the same for any region.
The research entitled "Impact Locations and Concussion Outcomes in High School Football Player-to-Player Collisions" was led by Dawn Comstock, of the Colorado School of Public Health and the University of Colorado at Denver.
"We were actually a little bit surprised," said Comstock. "Based on some of our prior research, we expected to see some differences."
The study analyzed data from the National High School Sports-Related Injury Surveillance Study, conducted from 2008/2009 to 2012/2013, which included 2,526 football-related concussions which happened in the midst of games and practices.
The analyzed data was used to calculate the rate of concussions occurring due to football injuries, as well as the situations which led to the same because of player-to-player collisions by "impact location" i.e. the area of impact like the rear of the head, front, top or side.
The research perseveres to get to a deeper insight into the serious side effects of concussions on athletes, which would enable them to tackle the same in an effective manner.
Per the data, nearly 44.7 percent of concussions occurred in the front head area, followed by impact on the side of the head with 22.3 percent. The back of the head (5.7 percent) and the top (5.5 percent) were next in line.
"Overall, most concussions caused by player-to-player collisions were caused by head-to-head contact (71 percent), followed by contact with another player's body site (i.e. elbow, knee, foot) (23 percent) and contact with the playing surface (after player-player contact) (6.3 percent)," says the study.
The study also found that players who received a knock on the top of the head had higher chances of losing consciousness (nearly 8 percent), when compared football players who got impacted on other areas of the head (3.5 percent). Moreover, players who got hit on the head had lowered their heads at the time of the impact, when compared to the percentage of players who received a knock on other areas of their head.
The study aims to delve into the effects of the concussions on an individual in the long term. Per the research team, on an average, a football player encounters nearly six concussions for every 10,000 games he plays.
Interestingly, the researchers observed that the place where the player got impacted did not seem to affect the associated symptoms, the time frame required for the player to bounce back, recoup and return to gameplay as normal.
The researchers suggest that to reduce top-of-the-head impact, players should be educated on how to tackle with better "head-up" techniques and they should avoid "leading with their heads."
The study has been published in the journal Pediatrics on August 11.
