Study: Physical Causes of Concussions in Youth Football

Source: sadlersports.com - Study: Physical Causes of Concussions in Youth Football
Author: John M. Sadler

And potential for lowering the numbers

A new study by Sadler Sports Insurance and American Youth Football (AYF), the world’s largest youth football organization, reveals the actual physical cause of concussions in youth tackle football ages 5 to 15. The study included 2,231 Accident insurance claims conducted over the years 2004 to 2013. During this time period, 5.58 percent of total claims reported were due to concussions. Below are trends for the physical cause of concussion claims:

Contact with ground			28%
Tackled by player			25%
Collision with opponent – other			17%
Tackling player			12%
Blocked by player			6%
Collision with teammate			5%
Blocking player			4%
Other			3%
Total			100%

Another way to consolidate the claim information is as follows:

Collision with player			69%
Contact with ground			28%
Other			3%

One of the primary risk management controls to reduce concussions in youth tackle football is the emphasis on the safe tackling technique through the AYF endorsed TackleSure program, which I reviewed in an earlier blog post . The TackleSure program would likely impact those concussion claims resulting from tackling players and tackled by player for a total potential 37% reduction of all concussion claims. In addition, the TackleSure program would reduce sub-concussive impacts and reinforce the more effective tackling technique.

Our earlier studies on concussions in AYF indicated that the vast majority of concussions occur during games – only 28 percent of concussion claims occur during practice. For more information on claims occurring in youth tackle football, see AYF Releases Data on Injuries in Youth Tackle Football.

 

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