
By Anne Z Hoch; MD Piper Klemm, PhD; Aniko Szabo, PhD;
Background: While there is increased awareness of concussion in football and hockey, equestrian riding is also high risk sport for concussion. Â There is more attention being placed on potential dangers of concussion and its consequences.
Methods: Â Equestrian athletes (1833) were surveyed from the United States Equestrian Federation (USEF). Â Frequencies, percentages, means, and standard deviations were produced in SAS version 9.4 (The SAS Institute, Cary, NC).
Results: The average age was 23.4 +/- 12.2 years. 98.3% of the athletes were female and 1.7% were male. On average, the athletes had been riding 15 +/- 11 years at time of the survey. 76.3% competed in Hunter, 62.2% competed in Jumper and 39.0% competed in both. The most common helmet to wear during practice and competition was the Charles Owen at 41.0% and 44.5% respectively. The five most common body areas to have been injured after falling off their horse were side of body (80.8%), buttocks (64.3%), head/neck (57.7%), back (11.3%) and knee/ankle/foot (7.7%). Of the athletes who hit their head or neck 73.4% returned to riding in less than 5 days. 71.6% had 1 or more symptoms of concussion, 31.1% had 5 or more symptoms of concussion and 12.5% had greater than 10 or more symptoms of concussion. Overall, of the 1833 athletes, 71.6% had concussion symptoms. Of the athletes that had symptoms, 40.9% were officially diagnosed with concussion. After having onset of symptoms, the athletes were most commonly seen by an MD/DO (44.4%). If the athlete was diagnosed with a concussion, it was most often done by a family physician (23.1%).
Conclusion: The data indicate that concussion symptoms are very common in equestrian athletes (71.6%) but only a minority of those with symptoms (40.9%) were officially diagnosed with a concussion. We recommend greater awareness of concussion symptoms among the equestrian athletes
Key Words: concussion, equestrian sports
Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine, Issue: Volume 26(2), March 2016, p e22–e57