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Risk factors
By Mayo Clinic staffAny blow to the head can cause a concussion. Falls and traffic accidents often involve concussions, with or without other injuries. Without proper safety equipment and supervision, student athletes may be at increased risk of concussions when playing football and other contact sports.
Concussions don't always involve head impact. Sudden acceleration or deceleration of the head — resulting from events such as a car crash or, in babies, being violently shaken — can cause a concussion. And anyone who has had a concussion is at higher risk of having concussions in the future.
- Minor head injury. American Academy of Pediatrics. http://www.aap.org/publiced/BR_HeadInjury.htm. Accessed Feb. 12, 2009.
- Heegaard WG, et al. System injuries. In: Marx JA, et al., eds. Marx: Rosen's Emergency Medicine: Concepts and Clinical Practice. 6th ed. St. Louis, Mo.: Mosby; 2006:349.
- Concussion. http://www.merck.com/mmhe/sec06/ch087/ch087c.html. Accessed Jan. 15, 2009.
- Evans RW. Concussion and mild traumatic brain injury. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed Jan. 15, 2009.
- Living with brain injury. Brain Injury Association of America. http://www.biausa.org/education.htm#concussion. Accessed Feb. 15, 2009.
- Evans RW, et al. Traumatic disorders. In: Goetz GD. Textbook of Clinical Neurology. 3rd ed. Philadelphia, Pa.: W.B. Saunders; 2007:1185.
- Concussion. American Association of Neurological Surgeons. http://www.neurosurgerytoday.org/what/patient_e/concussion.asp. Accessed Jan. 15, 2009.
- DePompolo RW (expert opinion). Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. Feb. 3, 2009.
