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A - 09 The Epidemiology of Concussion in Middle School Wrestling


 
 
 Wrestling has among the highest concussion incidence in all high school and collegiate sports. Many children begin wrestling in middle school (MS), however, research describing concussion incidence in MS wrestling remains limited. Therefore, we sought to describe the incidence of concussion and subsequent sport time loss (TL) sustained by MS wrestlers.
 
 
 
 Certified athletic trainers collected concussion and athlete exposure (AE) data for all MS wrestling practices and matches in a large metropolitan public-school division between 2015/16 and 2019/20. AE was defined as one athlete participating in one practice or match. Frequencies and proportions were calculated for diagnosed concussions by event type. TL was the number of days from date of injury to return to sport. Concussion injury rates (IR) per 1000 AEs and injury rate ratios (IRR) to compare IR between practice and matches were calculated with 95% Confidence Intervals (CIs). IRRs with 95% CIs excluding 1.0 were statistically significant.
 
 
 
 43 concussions occurred across 38,297 AEs (IR = 1.12, 95%CI = 0.79–1.46). No significant difference in the concussion IR between practices (n = 33, IR = 1.11, 95%CI = 0.73–1.49) and matches (n = 10, IR = 1.16, CI = 0.44–1.87; IRR = 1.04, 95% CI = 0.51–2.11) was observed. The mean TL was 18.38 ± 8.25 days.
 
 
 
 We observed higher practice and match concussion rates than those previously reported among middle and high school wrestlers. Additionally, our findings showed that MS wrestlers required approximately 5 more days to return to sport than reported among HS wrestlers. Further investigation of concussion risk factors for concussion and prolonged TL in MS wrestling is needed.
