Young football players who sustained a head-to-ground concussion practicing or playing games on natural grass experienced more symptoms—and significantly higher severity—than those who suffered concussions on artificial turf, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center found. The study, in the , is the first to investigate symptoms among young football athletes injured from helmet impact on different playing surfaces, according to lead author C. Munro Cullum, Ph.
D., Professor of Psychiatry, Neurological Surgery, and Neurology and an Investigator in the Peter O'Donnell Jr. Brain Institute at UT Southwestern.
Athletes who sustained a on reported 10.3 symptoms (mean level), compared with 5.9 for those injured on , and a mean symptom severity score of 26.
6 versus 11.6. "Many natural grass fields, especially at the youth level, may not be well maintained and can be harder and less forgiving than modern artificial turf, which has evolved significantly from the old, hard fields of the past," Dr.
Cullum said. "Today, many artificial fields use long synthetic fibers installed with infill over a shock-absorbing pad, all of which can help minimize the impact of a head-to-turf hit." Study participants, most of whom were in middle school or high school, were selected from the North Texas Concussion Registry, a multi-institutional collaboration of specialty concussion clinics.
All 62 participants were 10- to 24-year-old males who sustained a helmet-to-ground concussion practicing or .