Training is underway now for grade school football, and so are concerns about concussions.
You might think they happen more on artificial turf than natural grass.
But a new study of Texas middle and high school football players who’ve sustained concussions found just the opposite.
KERA’s Sam Baker discussed this with the study’s senior author, Dr. Munro Cullum, a Clinical Neuropsychologist at UT Southwestern Medical Center, specializing in assessing cognitive disorders.
The study suggests that artificial turf has improved these days. What has changed?
Those of us that were on athletic fields many, many years ago recall that sometimes it was a very, very thin layer of fake grass over almost concrete. So, it was very, very hard. And now most of the modern turfs do have some level of rubber or other padding underneath, although there's still a lot of variability.
Does this study suggest that artificial turf is safer?
I think that might be a little preliminary to make that conclusion. But the results did find that the symptoms were lower and less severe on the turf compared to grass. Now, just like with artificial turf, grass obviously varies tremendously from field to field, so that may play a role as well.
Why is natural grass a problem?
It's quite variable in terms of how well it's kept. How many bare spots are there? What is the nature of the soil beneath? Is it more clay? Is it more soft? Has it been watered recently? Is it hard? So, just like with artificial turf, there's a lot of variables that go into differences in grass fields as well. But again, that's something, that probably merits some further study.
So, what then, should schools take away from this study?
It suggests the nature of the football field should be looked at. And they should probably be evaluated for how new are the surfaces, how hard are the surfaces. And review that periodically if a school has turf that's very, very old. Maybe it's time to look at a renewed surface that might be somewhat more pliable, more soft.
And for concussion assessments, I think it suggests that we need to pay attention to what they hit their heads on, and looking for the possibility of greater symptoms, when they are playing on a grass surface. Although, as noted, the results are preliminary with a pretty small sample.
You've been studying concussions for years. Are schools more mindful today about this than before?
Schools are definitely, and school personnel are definitely, more mindful about concussions. The information has definitely gotten out over the last ten, 15 years, about taking concussions seriously.
I think more people are aware of what some of the signs and symptoms are even at the parental level. The CDC has issued some nice guidelines and things to watch for, for concussion. So, I think that concussion awareness is at an all-time high, and there is sensitivity to that. I think, people are being removed from play much more promptly, than they used to be when there is a suspected concussion. So, I think things are moving in the right direction for sure.
These are preliminary findings as the study describes them. So now where do you want to go with this study going forward?
I think a major next step for us is just to add more subjects, so we can get a much larger sample size to see if this trend continues. It would be great for additional studies to start recording the nature of the playing surface, type of turf and type of grass, although that's a little bit beyond what we're going to be able to do in our study. But we hope it stimulates more thinking about the factors that may affect concussion rates and concussion symptoms in our youth.
RESOURCES:
UTSW Study
NIH: How football raises the risk for chronic traumatic encephalopathy
How Common are Concussions in High School Football?
NIH: Concussions in High School Sports: Are They Worth the Risk? Should School Football Be Banned?
