Sep 24, 2020Study: HS Athletes Need More Recovery Time From Concussions
According to a new study from the Henry Ford Health System’s Sports Medicine Research, high school athletes in multiple sports need more recovery time from concussions.
The study was published in Orthopedics, a national peer-reviewed journal for orthopedic surgeons, and reported on by ABC-7 WXYZ Detroit.
While it’s well known that sports like football, hockey, and soccer all have high concussions rates, the study found that teenage athletes may require more recovery time following a concussion than originally thought.
“We thought that concussion issues would be very short-lived,” Dr. Vasilios (Bill) Moutzouros said, according to WXYZ Detroit. He’s also the chief of sports medicine at Henry Ford and co-authored this study. “That they wouldn’t have as many attention issues, that they’d be able to recover for their sport much more quickly. Our study found just the opposite.”
Looking at the health records of 357 high school student-athletes treated for concussions at Henry Ford between 2013 and 2016, researches found that there should be at least 30 days of recovery time prior to returning to athletics. That number will increase with more concussions sustained.
Here is the breakdown of concussions by sport according to data collected by Henry Ford in the region.
- Football: 27.7%
- Hockey: 21.8%
- “Other” Sports: 20.3%
- Soccer: 17%
- Basketball: 9%
- Cheerleading: 4.2%
The ages of the high school athletes ranged from 14 to 18 and 62 percent were males. The study also looked at the Immediate Post-Concussion Assessment and Cognitive Testing (ImPACT) scores at baseline testing. Kids had memory ImPACT scores increase as they got more concussions.
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Michigan High School Athletic Association (MHSAA) protocols call for players showing concussion symptoms to be out for at least 24 hours, but athletes at a school with a Henry Ford athletic trainer are sidelined for at least five days, according to WXYZ Detroit.
To read the full story from WXYZ Detroit on the Henry Ford Health System’s Sports Medicine Research on its new study on concussions, click here.
