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The Epidemiology of Sports-Related Head Injury and Concussion in Water Polo

Overview of attention for article published in Frontiers in Neurology, June 2016
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About this Attention Score

  • In the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (97th percentile)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (94th percentile)

Mentioned by

news
9 news outlets
blogs
2 blogs
twitter
19 X users
facebook
1 Facebook page
reddit
1 Redditor

Citations

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32 Dimensions

Readers on

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69 Mendeley
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Title
The Epidemiology of Sports-Related Head Injury and Concussion in Water Polo
Published in
Frontiers in Neurology, June 2016
DOI 10.3389/fneur.2016.00098
Pubmed ID
Authors

Robert S. Blumenfeld, Jessica C. Winsell, James W. Hicks, Steven L. Small

Abstract

Water polo is a sport with a high degree of physicality and aggressive play. Unlike most contact sports, epidemiological data on the incidence or prevalence of head trauma in water polo have not been gathered, reported, or made publicly available. The purpose of this study was to begin a systematic characterization of the risks of head impact and concussion in men and women who play water polo at various levels. We sent an electronic survey to the 44,000+ members of USA Water Polo, asking questions about concussions, head impacts, and symptoms commonly associated with prior concussion. From over 1500 complete responses, we report summary information on the prevalence of concussions and major head impacts in water polo. We found that 36% of respondents report sustaining a concussion while playing water polo, with an average of two concussions reported. The prevalence and number of concussions reported varied across positions, levels, and gender. Most strikingly, we found that goalies are at significantly higher risk for concussion, report a significantly more concussions, and appear to experience a qualitatively different type of head impact compared to other positions. Additionally, we found that competition level, gender, and field position are robust predictors of concussion risk. Our findings demonstrate that concussions are not uncommon in water polo players. We conclude that there is need for systematic concussion reporting in water polo and suggest that understanding the risk factors of concussion in water polo will require fully considering differences in the head impact exposure between different field positions, competition levels, sexes, and differences in exposure between competition and practice.

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X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 19 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 69 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Unknown 69 100%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Bachelor 13 19%
Student > Ph. D. Student 9 13%
Student > Master 8 12%
Student > Doctoral Student 5 7%
Researcher 5 7%
Other 12 17%
Unknown 17 25%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Medicine and Dentistry 14 20%
Sports and Recreations 9 13%
Nursing and Health Professions 5 7%
Engineering 5 7%
Neuroscience 4 6%
Other 9 13%
Unknown 23 33%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 90. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 09 October 2016.
All research outputs
#398,944
of 22,879,161 outputs
Outputs from Frontiers in Neurology
#111
of 11,802 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#8,977
of 352,727 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Frontiers in Neurology
#3
of 56 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 22,879,161 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 98th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 11,802 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a little more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 7.3. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 352,727 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 97% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 56 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 94% of its contemporaries.