Children! Brains! Children’s Brains!
Concussions being the worry du jour, my county now requires all high school athletes to perform a baseline test. CDC helpfully explains, “Baseline tests are used to assess an athlete’s balance and brain function (including learning and memory skills, ability to pay attention or concentrate, and how quickly he or she thinks and solve problems), as well as for the presence of any concussion symptoms. Results from baseline tests (or pre-injury tests) can be used and compared to a similar exam conducted by a health care professional during the season if an athlete has a suspected concussion.”
So, the football and soccer teams were examined last week. And then the cross country, tennis, golf, and volleyball teams. I have no idea in which year or decade the last high school tennis player was knocked out, but when the next one returns a serve with her forehead, she’ll have documented evidence of how much dumber that misfortune will have left her.
John Mansfield
August 22, 2013
Traumatic brain injury in high school athletes, JAMA. 1999 Sep 8;282(10):958-63.
SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: Two hundred forty-six certified athletic trainers recorded injury and exposure data for high school varsity athletes participating in boys’ football, wrestling, baseball and field hockey, girls’ volleyball and softball, boys’ and girls’ basketball, and boys’ and girls’ soccer at 235 US high schools during 1 or more of the 1995-1997 academic years.
RESULTS: Of 23566 reported injuries in the 10 sports during the 3-year study period, 1219 (5.5%) were MTBIs. Of the MTBIs, football accounted for 773 (63.4%) of cases; wrestling, 128 (10.5%); girls’ soccer, 76 (6.2%); boys’ soccer, 69 (5.7%); girls’ basketball, 63 (5.2%); boys’ basketball, 51 (4.2%); softball, 25 (2.1%); baseball, 15 (1.2%); field hockey, 13 (1.1%); and volleyball, 6 (0.5%). The injury rates per 100 player-seasons were 3.66 for football, 1.58 for wrestling, 1.14 for girls’ soccer, 1.04 for girls’ basketball, 0.92 for boys’ soccer, 0.75 for boys’ basketball, 0.46 for softball, 0.46 for field hockey, 0.23 for baseball, and 0.14 for volleyball.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10485681
I found a 17-year-old tennis pro, Lauren Davis, who suffered concussion in 2011: A television camera blew over and hit her on the head. But everyone already knows television deforms the brain.
Vader
August 22, 2013
My congressional representative tripped and knocked himself on the head not too long ago.
As a precaution, they did a brain scan. It found nothing.