from JAMA Pediatrics
Soccer has significantly increased in popularity in this country over the past three decades, but authors of an article in the journal JAMA Pediatrics say soccer has been allowed to become more physical—with more contact between athletes. Contact with another player is the most common way high school boys and girls sustained concussions—two-thirds of boys and slightly more than one-half of concussions to girls, with heading the ball the most common contact activity resulting in a concussion. However, the authors at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus say banning heading is unlikely to significantly reduce concussions unless such a ban is combined with efforts to reduce athlete to athlete contact during the soccer game.