TY - JOUR
T1 - Return to Full Participation Following Concussion in the National Football League, 2015 Through 2020
AU - Mack, Christina D.
AU - Herzog, Mackenzie M.
AU - Solomon, Gary
AU - Putukian, Margot
AU - Lee, Rebecca Y.
AU - Matava, Matthew J.
AU - Cárdenas, Javier
AU - Theodore, Nicholas
AU - Sills, Allen
N1 - Funding Information:
The curation, build and analytics in the NFL Injury Database are funded by the NFL/NFLPA. No author received direct, individual payment for this work. Authors C. D. Mack, M. M. Herzog, and R. Y. Lee are employees of IQVIA, which is in a paid consultancy with the NFL. G. Solomon is a paid consultant of the NFL Player Health and Safety Department. M. Putukian is a Senior Advisor for the NFL Head Neck & Spine Committee, and is a paid consultant as Chief Medical Officer for Major League Soccer and has received royalties for chapters written/editor role in the textbook Netters Sports Medicine. M. J. Matava received an honorarium for his efforts as Chair of the NFL Research & Innovation Committee. J. Cardenas is the Vice Chair of the NFL Head Neck & Spine Committee, consultant for the NFL Neurotrauma Consultant Program and received a research grant from the NFL not related to this publication. N. Theodore received an honorarium for participation on the National Football League's Head Neck and Spine Committee. A. Sills is a full-time employee of the NFL.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Lippincott Williams and Wilkins. All rights reserved.
PY - 2022/11/1
Y1 - 2022/11/1
N2 - Objective:Quantify days missed, games missed, injury burden, and time to return to full participation (RTFP) among National Football League (NFL) players who sustained a concussion.Design:Retrospective cohort study.Setting:2015 through 2020 NFL seasons.Participants:National Football League players diagnosed with a concussion from 2015 to 2020.Interventions:National Football League-mandated graduated RTFP protocol.Main Outcome Measures:Days missed, games missed, burden, and time to RTFP, overall and by position.Results:An annual average of 3639 player-days of participation and 255 games were missed across NFL because of concussion. Concussed players missed a median of 9 days (mean = 15.0), a relatively stable metric over 6 years, with slight variation by position. Offensive linemen, tight ends, running backs, and linebackers missed the most days per concussion; defensive secondary, offensive linemen, and wide receivers sustained the highest injury burden. Postconcussion, 59% of players missed one or more scheduled games. Among players concussed in a Sunday game, 38% played in a Sunday game one week later.Conclusions:The 9-day median time missed post-concussion may be related to emphasis on graduated phase-based concussion management. No concussed player returned to competition on the day of injury, and less than 40% participated in games the following week. Further work is needed to better understand characteristics of concussions that take longer to return and movement through stages of return.
AB - Objective:Quantify days missed, games missed, injury burden, and time to return to full participation (RTFP) among National Football League (NFL) players who sustained a concussion.Design:Retrospective cohort study.Setting:2015 through 2020 NFL seasons.Participants:National Football League players diagnosed with a concussion from 2015 to 2020.Interventions:National Football League-mandated graduated RTFP protocol.Main Outcome Measures:Days missed, games missed, burden, and time to RTFP, overall and by position.Results:An annual average of 3639 player-days of participation and 255 games were missed across NFL because of concussion. Concussed players missed a median of 9 days (mean = 15.0), a relatively stable metric over 6 years, with slight variation by position. Offensive linemen, tight ends, running backs, and linebackers missed the most days per concussion; defensive secondary, offensive linemen, and wide receivers sustained the highest injury burden. Postconcussion, 59% of players missed one or more scheduled games. Among players concussed in a Sunday game, 38% played in a Sunday game one week later.Conclusions:The 9-day median time missed post-concussion may be related to emphasis on graduated phase-based concussion management. No concussed player returned to competition on the day of injury, and less than 40% participated in games the following week. Further work is needed to better understand characteristics of concussions that take longer to return and movement through stages of return.
KW - American football
KW - National Football League
KW - concussion
KW - epidemiology
KW - return to play
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85140943967&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1097/JSM.0000000000001050
DO - 10.1097/JSM.0000000000001050
M3 - Article
C2 - 36315827
AN - SCOPUS:85140943967
SN - 1050-642X
VL - 32
SP - E605-E613
JO - Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine
JF - Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine
IS - 6
ER -