Table 2.
Incidence of concussion in football
| No. (%) of concussions | Injury risk (incidence proportion) per seasona | Injury rate (incidence rate) per 100,000 athlete-exposures | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Athlete-seasons | Risk (%)a | 95 %CI | CLR | Athlete-exposures | Rate | 95 %CI | CLR | ||
| Overall | 239 (100) | 8524 | 2.6 | 2.3, 3.0 | 1.3 | 676,274 | 35.3 | 30.9, 39.8 | 1.3 |
| Exposure type | |||||||||
| Games | 148 (61.9) | –– | –– | –– | –– | 77,767 | 190.3 | 159.7, 221.0 | 1.4 |
| Practices | 85 (35.6) | –– | –– | –– | –– | 598,507 | 14.2 | 11.2, 17.2 | 1.5 |
| Setting | |||||||||
| High school | 197 (82.4) | 7247 | 2.6 | 2.2, 3.0 | 1.4 | 566,063 | 34.8 | 29.9, 39.7 | 1.3 |
| College | 42 (17.6) | 1277 | 2.9 | 2.0, 3.8 | 1.9 | 110,212 | 38.1 | 26.6, 49.6 | 1.9 |
| Positionb | |||||||||
| Defensive back | 23 (9.6) | 811 | 2.7 | 1.6, 3.8 | 2.4 | 65,327 | 35.2 | 20.8, 49.6 | 2.4 |
| Defensive lineman | 26 (10.9) | 1090 | 2.3 | 1.4, 3.2 | 2.3 | 87,072 | 29.9 | 18.4, 41.3 | 2.3 |
| Linebacker | 29 (12.1) | 909 | 2.8 | 1.7, 3.8 | 2.2 | 72,539 | 40.0 | 25.4, 54.5 | 2.1 |
| Offensive lineman | 48 (20) | 2051 | 2.2 | 1.6, 2.9 | 1.8 | 161,901 | 29.7 | 21.3, 38.0 | 1.8 |
| Quarterback | 19 (7.9) | 506 | 3.6 | 1.9, 5.2 | 2.7 | 39,737 | 47.8 | 26.3, 69.3 | 2.6 |
| Receiver | 31 (13) | 1264 | 2.4 | 1.5, 3.2 | 2.1 | 100,046 | 31.0 | 20.1, 41.9 | 2.1 |
| Running back | 40 (16.7) | 1135 | 3.3 | 2.2, 4.3 | 2.0 | 89,028 | 44.9 | 31.0, 58.9 | 1.9 |
| Special teams and kicker | 5 (2.1) | 230 | 2.2 | 0.3, 4.1 | 13.7 | 18,826 | 26.6 | 3.3, 49.8 | 15.2 |
| Tight end | 13 (5.4) | 487 | 2.7 | 1.2, 4.1 | 3.4 | 38,488 | 33.8 | 15.4, 52.1 | 3.4 |
CI confidence interval, CLR confidence limit ratio
aInjury risk is the average probability that an athlete will be concussed during a season
bThere were six concussions (2 %) in activities other than games and practices; position is undefined for these injuries