A new study suggests that one in five teens have had at least one diagnosed concussion in their lifetime. File photo by Ian Halperin/UPI | License Photo

Sept. 26 (UPI) -- A new study from the University of Michigan found that one in five teenagers reported at least one concussion diagnosis in their lifetime.

The study, published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that 5.5 percent of teens reported having more than one concussion in their lifetime.


Researchers analyzed more than 13,088 adolescents in the 2016 Monitoring the Future survey, a national survey that tracks U.S. students in grades 8, 10 and 12 who were asked if they ever had a head injury diagnoses as a concussion.

The study showed that factors such as being male, white, in a higher grade in school and playing competitive sports were all associated with a higher lifetime prevalence of reporting concussions.

The study group was 50.2 percent female, and asked teens to report if they played at least one of 21 different sports over the past 12 months. Researchers found that 19.5 percent of teens reported at least one diagnosed concussion in their lifetime.

Concussions from contact sports injuries have been in the spotlight more recently with National Football League players being diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, including former New England Patriot Aaron Hernandez.

"Greater effort to track concussions using large-scale epidemiological data are needed to identify high-risk subpopulations and monitor prevention efforts," the researchers stated in a press release.