76 (12B) Epidemiology of concussion in PAC-12 athletes

Purpose To determine the risk of concussion per season in Division I college athletes and compare between sex-matched sports.Methods Data was collected over six seasons using the PAC-12 Health Analytics Program to calculate incidence per 100 athlete years (AY) or percentage of athletes per year.Repeat concussions for an individual athlete in the same year were excluded.Concussion rates were calculated by sport and sex.Rate ratios (RRs) and corresponding 95% confidence intervals were calculated using Poisson to compare sex-matched sports.Results There were 34,640 AY included (54% male, 46% female, 21% football, 5% women's soccer, 3% women's volleyball).A total of 2,165 concussions were reported (51% male, 49% female).Football accounted for 30% of total number of concussions, followed by women's soccer (9%) and women's volleyball (6%), however, the highest annual risk of concussion was women's volleyball and basketball (both 13%) followed by men's and women's water polo, women's soccer, and women's diving (all 11%).The annual risk in football was 9%, along with women's skiing, men's basketball, men's wrestling, and women's softball.Females were slightly more likely to sustain a concussion (RR 1.12, 95% CI = [1.03,1.22];p<0.001).Women's soccer, softball, swimming, tennis, rowing, basketball, and volleyball had statistically significantly higher rate than sex-matched sport counterparts.The matched sports of water polo, diving, skiing, gymnastics, track and field, golf, and cross country all had non-significant rate comparisons.Conclusion The annual rate of concussion by sport offers an important perspective for understanding athlete risk compared to other methods.