Football and baseball have gotten most of the press, but concussions are also on the rise in basketball, girls’ basketball in particular, according to a study published Monday by the Pediatrics medical journal.
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/abstract/peds.2009-2497v1
The New York Times wrote a story about the study Tuesday, in a story headlined “In Basketball, Danger of Head Trauma.” The article notes that basketball is America’s most popular youth sport, with 1 million children participating, some 550,000 boys and 450,000 girls.
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/13/in-basketball-danger-of-head-trauma/?ref=health
These are the kids who are getting more and more head injuries, since basketball is in fact a contact sport. The 11-year study found that for the year 2007, roughly 375,000 children and teens went to hospital emergency rooms for basketball-related injuries. In 2007, 4 percent of those injuries were related to the head, twice as many as were reported in 1997, according to The Times.
About 109,000 children and teens received treatment for head injuries stemming from basketball during the span of the study, according to The Times, with some 12,000 in 2007. The percent of head injuries girls suffered during the time period covered by the study tripled, while it just doubled for boys, The Times said.
According to a separate report in Pediatrics, basketball was responsible for more than 9 percent of athletic concussions for 8- to 19-year-olds, putting it No. 2 among all youth sports, second only to football, which accounted for 22 percent, according to The Times. Soccer was No. 3, at 7.7 percent, and then came hockey and basketball, at just less than 4 percent each.
There are several theories about the rise in basketball head injuries, especially among girls. First, there is more public awareness of the danger of concussions. The sport may be getting more competitive, according to The Times. And girls may be more willing to ask for medical help when they are injured.
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I am looking for a helmet to prevent concussions in middle school girls’ basketball. I can’t find anything. Does anyone know of one that exists?
Look at the pathology Chris Nowinski found in CTE…it matches that seen in Shaken Baby Syndrome, it is not consistent with the theory of Coup-Contrecoup. Therefore we need to change our assumptions of the past 300 years. It is not just the impact but the massive brain shaking which accompanies all sudden decelerations in sports. Take a look at Revolutionarysportsgear.com…this is the first systems approach to reducing concussions in sports. This patented system will only make the best helmets better.
Helmets were really designed to prevent skull fractures and to that end they do a good job. But lately the public is looking to make helmets do more than possible.
In addition to equipment changes, we all owe at great deal of thanks to the folks at Sports Legacy Institute for bringing this crisis to the front pages.