Sport Type and Risk of Subsequent Injury in Collegiate Athletes Following Concussion: a LIMBIC MATARS Consortium Investigation

ABSTRACT

Objective

To investigate the association between sport type (collision, contact, non-contact) and subsequent injury risk following concussion in collegiate athletes.

Materials and Methods

This retrospective chart review of 248 collegiate athletes with diagnosed concussions (age: 20.0 ± 1.4 years; height: 179.6 ± 10.9 cm; mass: 79.0 ± 13.6 kg, 63% male) from NCAA athletic programs (n = 11) occurred between the 2015–2020 athletic seasons. Acute injuries that occurred within six months following concussion were evaluated. Subsequent injuries were grouped by lower extremity, upper extremity, trunk, or concussion. The independent variable was sport type: collision, contact, non-contact. A Cox proportional hazard model was used to assess the risk of subsequent injury between sport types.

Results

Approximately 28% (70/248) of athletes sustained a subsequent acute injury within six months post-concussion. Collision sport athletes had a significantly higher risk of sustaining any injury (HR: 0.41, p < 0.001, 95% CI: 0.28, 0.62), lower extremity (HR: 0.55, p = 0.04, 95% CI: 0.32, 0.97), and upper extremity (HR: 0.41, p = 0.01, 95% CI: 0.20, 0.81) injuries following concussion. No differences between sport types were observed for other injuries.

Conclusion

Collision sport athletes had a higher rate of any subsequent injury, lower, and upper extremity injuries following concussion. Future research should focus on sport-specific secondary injury prevention efforts.

KEYWORDS:

• Mild traumatic brain injury
• musculoskeletal injury
• sport
• repetitive head impacts
• survival analysis

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.