Conditional recommendations are made supporting preventive interventions concussion education and rules prohibiting high-risk activity for both pediatric and adult amateur athletes and neck strengthening exercise in adult amateur athletes .
Strong recommendations are supported for head protective equipment in both pediatric and adult amateur athletes .
Strong recommendations regarding newer football helmet technology in adult amateur athletes and rules governing the implementation of body-checking in youth ice hockey are supported .
Background Awareness of the magnitude of contact sports-related concussions has risen exponentially in recent years .
Our objective is to conduct a prospect ively registered systematic review of the scientific evidence regarding interventions to prevent contact sports-related concussions .
Examining Concussion Rates and Return to Play in High School Football Players Wearing Newer Helmet Technology: A Three-Year Prospective Cohort Study
OBJECTIVE : The purpose of this study was to compare concussion rates and recovery times for athletes wearing newer helmet technology compared to traditional helmet design . METHODS : This was a three-year , prospect i ve , naturalistic , cohort study . Participants were 2,141 high school athletes from Western Pennsylvania . Approximately half of the sample wore the Revolution helmet manufactured by Riddell , Inc.  ( n = 1,173 ) and the remainder of the sample used  st and ard helmets ( n = 968 ) . Athletes underwent computerized neurocognitive testing through the use of ImPACT at the beginning of the study . Following a concussion , players were reevaluated at various time intervals until recovery was complete . RESULTS : In the total sample , the concussion rate in athletes wearing the Revolution was 5.3 % and in athletes wearing st and ard helmets was 7.6 % [ & khgr;2 ( 1 , 2 , 141 ) = 4.96 , P < 0.027 ] . The relative risk estimate was 0.69 ( 95 % confidence interval = 0.499– 0.958 ) . Wearing the Revolution helmet was associated with approximately a 31 % decreased relative risk and 2.3 % decreased absolute risk for sustaining a concussion in this cohort study . The athletes wearing the Revolution did not differ from athletes wearing st and ard helmets on the mechanism of injury ( e.g. , head-to-head strike ) , on-field concussion markers ( e.g. , amnesia or loss of consciousness ) , or on-field presentation of symptoms ( e.g. , headaches , dizziness , or balance problems ) . CONCLUSION : Recent sophisticated laboratory research has better eluci date d injury biomechanics associated with concussion in professional football players . This data has led to changes in helmet design and new helmet technology , which appears to have beneficial effects in reducing the incidence of cerebral concussion in high school football players
Conditional recommendations are made supporting preventive interventions concussion education and rules prohibiting high-risk activity for both pediatric and adult amateur athletes and neck strengthening exercise in adult amateur athletes .
Strong recommendations are supported for head protective equipment in both pediatric and adult amateur athletes .
Strong recommendations regarding newer football helmet technology in adult amateur athletes and rules governing the implementation of body-checking in youth ice hockey are supported .
Background Awareness of the magnitude of contact sports-related concussions has risen exponentially in recent years .
Our objective is to conduct a prospect ively registered systematic review of the scientific evidence regarding interventions to prevent contact sports-related concussions .