Concussion Statistics

Let;s start with a microcosm example. Typically by the time an owner of a business takes some sort of safety action, you know that a) there is a serious problem that has been going on for years, and/or b) that business is about to be investigated by an agency of the US Government. Guess what? The National Football League meets both of those criteria.

Last week, the NFL announced that it will be hanging the official size and weight “concussion poster” in the locker rooms of all 32 teams this upcoming season to warn players about the dangers of concussions.

The NFL has now made the concussion issue a priority following years of both serious medical problems with former NFL players and a good dose of criticism by head injury experts and various lawmakers.

CDCP Concussion Statistics

The issue of concussions is not just a professional sports problem. It is everywhere from household accidents to the playgrounds to car accidents to every possible aspect of daily human life.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCP), as many as 3.8 million sports and recreation related concussions are estimated to occur in the United States every year. Symptoms usually include confusion, head ache and blurred vision. In the more extreme cases vomiting and loss of consciousness can occur. But one of the major problems with concussions is that signs of the injury are not always that easy to recognize at first.

National TBI Estimates

Each year, an estimated 1.7 million people sustain a TBI annually. Of them:

• 52,000 die,
• 275,000 are hospitalized, and
• 1.365 million, nearly 80%, are treated and released from an emergency department.

TBI is a contributing factor to a third (30.5%) of all injury-related deaths in the United States.

About 75% of TBIs that occur each year are concussions or other forms of mild TBI.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Concussion Statistics

CDCP Concussion Statistics – By Age

As for young people, the CDCP indicates that concussions account for nearly one in 10 sports injuries for those between 15-24 years of age, making sports second only to motor vehicle accidents as the leading cause of brain injury. The reason for this, according to a 2009 study conducted by the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, may be due to athletes returning to the playing field too soon. In fact, their study concludes that 40% of high school athletes who suffer concussions return to the field of play prematurely, thus putting themselves at greater risk for more severe injuries.

TBI by Age

• Children aged 0 to 4 years, older adolescents aged 15 to 19 years, and adults aged 65 years and older are most likely to sustain a TBI.
• Almost half a million (473,947) emergency department visits for TBI are made annually by children aged 0 to 14 years.
• Adults aged 75 years and older have the highest rates of TBI-related hospitalization and death.

Sports Concussion Institute Concussion Statistics

The Sports Concussion Institute estimates that 10 percent of athletes in contact sports suffer a concussion each season. According to the CDCP, during 2001-2005 children and youth ages 5-18 years accounted for 2.4 million sports-related emergency department (ED) visits annually, of which 6% (135,000) involved a concussion. For young people ages 15 to 24 years, sports are the second leading cause of traumatic brain injury behind only motor vehicle crashes.