Athlete-to-Athlete Contact the Most Common Cause of Concussion in High School Soccer

By Amy Orciari Herman

Edited by David G. Fairchild, MD, MPH, and Jaye Elizabeth Hefner, MD

Concussions among high school soccer players occur most often during soccer ball heading — but it is contact with another player, not the ball, that is the actual cause of injury — a JAMA Pediatrics study finds.

Using a national high school sports injury database, U.S. researchers studied concussions that occurred from 2005 through 2014. For girls' soccer, the overall rate of concussion was 4.5 per 10,000 athlete exposures; for boys' soccer, the rate was 2.8 per 10,000. Over half of concussions among girls and two-thirds among boys resulted from player-to-player contact.

Heading was the most common activity associated with concussions. Among heading injuries, 62% in girls and 78% in boys resulted from player-to-player contact, while just 32% and 15%, respectively, resulted from contact with the ball.

The authors conclude, "We believe that reducing athlete-athlete contact across all phases of play will more effectively prevent concussions, as well as other injuries, than will simply banning heading."