Injury surveillance of head and neck injuries with a special focus on sport-related concussions: Eight seasons observational study in professional football in Qatar

Objectives

To describe the head and neck injuries with a focus on Sport-Related Concussion (SRC) in professional football in Qatar (PFQ) during eight consecutive seasons.

Design

Prospective observational study.

Methods

Seventeen PFQ teams were included over eight seasons (2013/14–2020/21) study. The injury data were collected by the respective clubs' medical staff using standardized (time-loss injuries) protocols.

Results

Data were obtained from 119 teams' seasons resulting in a total of 87 head and neck injuries (1.8 % of the 4736 time-loss injuries). Head and neck injury rate was of 0.57 injury/squad-season (95%CI: 0.56–0.59), representing 0.12 injury/1000 h (95%CI: 0.09–0.14). Thirty-three concussions were recorded. The concussion rate was 0.25 injury/squad-season (95%CI: 0.23–0.26), representing 0.04 injury/1000 h (95%CI: 0.03–0.06). The concussion proportion of all head injuries was 31.7 % during the four initial seasons and 43.5 % during the following four seasons with a non-significant increase of 11.8 % (X² = 1267, p = 0.26).

Conclusions

Injury rates in this cohort remain lower than comparable leagues elsewhere. Even though the incidence rate of SRC did not change significantly over the eight seasons, seasonal variations' trend may indicate that the medical staff are more aware of diagnosing head and neck injuries, including concussion.