Risk of Concussion During Sports Versus Physical Education Among New Mexico Middle and High School Students.

OBJECTIVES: To measure the risk of concussion among New Mexico middle and high school students during both sports and physical education. METHODS: Athletic directors or athletic trainers in 147 schools were asked to report the number of concussions occurring during sports and physical education in the 2013 to 2014 school year. We calculated 1-year cumulative incidence rates. RESULTS: Of the 147 schools, 99 responded (67%). During the school year, 598 students were removed from athletics because of a concussion, a 1-year cumulative incidence of 3.5 per 100. The concussion rate during sports was 3.0: 3.5 for boys and 2.4 for girls (relative risk [RR] = 1.5; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.2, 1.7). An additional 335 students experienced concussions during physical education. Concussion rates during physical education were 60% higher than during sports (RR = 1.6; 95% CI = 1.4, 1.8). CONCLUSIONS: In our data, the risk of concussion was higher in physical education than in sports. This suggests that concussions should be tracked for a wide range of youth athletic activities, not just for sports. Monitoring cumulative incidence, in addition to other measures, may allow comparisons across schools and regions. More prevention efforts are needed.

Impact of analysis methods on the reproducibility and reliability of resting-state networks.

Though previous examinations of intrinsic resting-state networks (RSNs) in healthy populations have consistently identified several RSNs that represent connectivity patterns evoked by cognitive and sensory tasks, the effects of different analytic approaches on the reliability and reproducibility of these RSNs have yet to be fully explored. Thus, the primary aim of the current study was to investigate the effect of method (independent component analyses [ICA] vs. seed-based analyses) on RSN reproducibility (independent datasets) for ICA and reliability (independent time points) in both methods using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Good to excellent reproducibility was observed in 9 out of 10 commonly identified RSNs, indicating the robustness of these intrinsic fluctuations at the group level. Reliability analyses showed that results were dependent on three main methodological factors: (1) group versus subject-level analyses (group>subject); (2) whether data from different visits were analyzed separately or jointly with ICA (combined>separate ICA); and (3) whether ICA output was used to directly assess reliability or to inform seed-based analyses (seed-based>ICA). These results suggest that variations in the analytic technique have a significant impact on individual reliability measurements, but do not significantly affect the reproducibility or reliability of RSNs at the group level. Further investigation into the effect of the analytic technique on RSN quantification is warranted to increase the utility of RSN analyses in clinical studies.