Epidemiology of Concussive Injuries in Collegiate Recreational Athletes

Abstract

Concussion rates are commonly reported in high school and National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) sports. Given that participation in collegiate recreation is on the rise, institutions should examine concussion rates within their recreational programs. We, therefore, retrospectively examined a recreational department's injury reports establishing concussion rates across ( n = 16) club and ( n = 10) intramural sports at a public university in the southeastern United States from 2016 to 2019. One hundred and thirty-five concussions (club n = 56; intramural n = 79) were identified and constituted 12.4% of documented injuries ( n = 1,088). The intramural concussion rate was 0.57 per 1,000 athletic exposures (AEs) and AE was greatest in outdoor soccer (0.99 per 1,000 AE). Therefore, our data suggests an increased incidence of concussions in intramurals compared to published rates in NCAA and high school sports. Collegiate recreational departments should consider these concussion rates when formulating risk management strategies.