Caleb Goldstein
Research Mentor: Abigail Bretzin
Mentor Department: Injury Prevention Center, Emergency Medicine, Other
Author(s): Abigail Bretzin, Christopher Knaub, Douglas Wiebe
Session: Session 2 (10:00 AM – 10:50 AM)
Presentation Type: Poster 86
Abstract
Motivation/problem statement: With the growing concern of concussions in athletic settings, it is still a question as to how athletic programs are able to better understand how their players are obtaining these traumatic injuries and best mitigate the amount of concussion and severity of trauma for their athletes. Methods/procedure/approach: Zooming in on the sport of baseball, the work I am conducting as a part of the Ivy League-Big Ten Epidemiology of Concussion study reports all of the data back to 2013 from Ivy League and Big Ten baseball programs. Using the descriptions and instances submitted by coaches, I am able sort the mechanism of injury for each concussion into different categories to better understand the common nature of concussions for baseball players and report back to coaches. Results/findings/product: When sorting each reported injury by its mechanism, I found three commonalities among the concussions of players that helped identify patterns on how baseball players are obtaining concussions and how to best move forward: 1) The majority of the concussions are related to batting or catching instances. 2) Within these instances, the most likely cause of injury was the ball coming in contact with the players head in some fashion. 3) The amount of injuries that resulted in practice versus a competition were split, so the training environment can possibly be better controlled. Conclusion/implications: Given that a large portion of the concussions from these collegiate baseball programs occurred from trauma related to the ball coming into contact with a batter or a catcher (with small instances with other players), it could be influential to look into a better field of protective equipment. The goal of limiting the amount of concussions in all sports, not just baseball, comes with reevaluating protection of players.
