title: Prevalence of head injury and medically diagnosed concussion in junior-level community-based Australian Rules Football.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  For junior-level Australian Rules Football there is a paucity of head injury and concussion surveillance data; thus, the primary aim was to document head injury and concussion incidence in participants aged 9-17 years with a secondary aim to identify the mechanism-of-injury.
  
  
  METHODS
  A prospective cohort study in which a designated representative for each of the 41 teams recorded on a weekly basis the number of head injuries suspected of being a concussion, diagnosed concussions and the mechanism-of-injury during competition games over the course of a 12-game season. For analysis three groups were formed - number of Player-Seasons, Athlete-Exposures, head injury and concussion incidence per 1000 Athlete-Exposures - and were calculated. Narrative data was categorised.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There was 13 reported head injuries resulting in seven concussions in the sample population (n = 976). The incidence rates for head injury and concussion were 1.1 (95% confidence interval: 0.5-1.7) and 0.59 (95% confidence interval: 0.2-1.0) per 1000 Athlete-Exposures. There were four head injuries resulting in two concussions in the 12-13-year-old group and nine head injuries and five concussions in the 14-17-year-old group. Two categories emerged for mechanism-of-injury: player-to-surface and player-to-player, with 9 of the 13 head injuries resulting from player-to-player contact.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The incidence rates were similar in the two older groups and lower in comparison with American football and rugby. The data collected have advanced our knowledge of head injury incidence and established baseline data which to compare in future years and may assist in development of preventative measures.
authors.affiliation: Division of Athletic Training, University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, Iowa, United States.|School of Psychology and Exercise Science, Murdoch University, Perth, Western Australia, Australia.
authors.forename: Mark D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Hecimovich
authors.affiliation: Sports Performance Research Institute New Zealand, School of Sport and Recreation, Faculty of Health and Environmental Science, Auckland University of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand.|Emergency Department, Hutt Valley District Health Board, Wellington, New Zealand.
authors.forename: Doug
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: King
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001265:Athletic Injuries / Q000453:epidemiology; D001924:Brain Concussion / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology; D002648:Child; D006259:Craniocerebral Trauma / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012916:Soccer / Q000293:injuries*; D014904:Western Australia / Q000453:epidemiology
keywords: football; head injuries; incidence; surveillance; youth