Head contact and suspected concussion rates in university basketball: Are head contact penalties a target for prevention?

Objective: To compare head contact (HC) and suspected concussion incidence rates (IRs) in male and female university basketball players and describe associated game event and court location. Design: Cross-sectional. Setting: Canadian basketball courts. Participants: Players from 5 male and 5 female 2019 to 2020 regular season basketball games. Assessment of Risk Factors: Prerecorded game footage was analyzed using Dartfish video analysis software to compare sexes. Main Outcome Measures: Poisson regression analysis was used to estimate IRs and incidence rate ratios (IRRs) for HCs and suspected concussions. Head contacts were classified as HC1 (direct, player-to-player) or HC2 (indirect, player-to-environment). Game event, court location, and penalization of HCs were reported. Results: Two hundred thirty HCs (88.7% HC1s, 11.3% HC2s) were observed. The HC1 IR was higher in male than female players (IRR, 1.55; 95% CI, 1.16-2.06). Most HCs occurred within the key. Shooting was the primary offensive game event for male and female players for receiving HC1s (24.6% and 20.0%, respectively). Defensively, HC1s occurred most frequently while guarding an attacker for male players (40.6%) and rebounding for female players (31.0%). The suspected concussion IR was not significantly different between male and female players (IRR, 2.00; 95% CI, 0.20-19.8). In total, 11.2% of HC1s to defenders and 25.7% of HC1s to offensive players were assessed as a foul. Conclusion: Head contact rates were higher for male varsity basketball players compared with female players; however, suspected concussion rates did not differ. Game event and court locations differed by sex. A priority target for injury prevention is penalization of HCs because most HCs in competition went unpenalized.