Over the past year, the Podium Institute has conducted an extensive, government-endorsed project to produce the first nationwide report quantifying the incidence and economic burden of sport-related concussion across the United Kingdom. The report is being delivered in conjunction with the Institute of Biomedical Engineering, the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, the Health Economics Research Centre at the Nuffield Department of Population Health, the Bodleian Health Care Libraries (all at the University of Oxford) and the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Due for completion in early 2024, with publication to follow in a leading peer-reviewed scientific journal, the key output of the study is the estimation of lower and upper bounds of the healthcare costs associated with sport-related head injury, by sport and for ages 11–15 and 16+, compared with the overall healthcare benefits arising from sport participation using previously reported studies. This is key to maintaining perspective on the substantial but addressable generational cost of concussion, relative to the far greater overall societal and healthcare benefits of sport participation.

The report will help to inform future government expenditure and policy on addressing sport-related head injury, and will also identify data gaps by sport, gender and age, as well as the potential impact of the findings on NHS services moving forward. The report focuses on the 14 sports that account for over 90% of concussion incidences in the UK and has involved considerable collaboration with their respective International Federations, National Federations, Chief Medical Officers and associated Medical Committees and Academic Research partners, in addition to extensive support from Sport England and Active Lives to extrapolate participation data for the UK.

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