Previous concussions and match play increase the risk of sustaining subsequent concussions, but there is not enough high quality research evidence to determine whether other factors, such as gender, playing position, playing level, style of play, environment and injury mechanism, also significantly increase risk of concussion in sport, finds a first-of-its-kind, evidence-based systematic review of the scientific literature published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.^[1]

14 concussion risk factors

Analyzing the findings of 86 studies which met the critieria for inclusion, South African researchers, led by Shameemah Abrahams, MS of the UCT/RMC Research Unit for Exercise Science and Sports Medicine in the Department of Human Biology at the University of Cape Town, identified 14 risk factors for sports concussion and assigned each a level of certainty for risk assessment purposes (see chart below):