A new US study has revealed that there is a significant rise in the young players receiving concussions, which has climbed up by almost two-fold in ten years. Though this upsurge was seen much among the high-school-age athletes, it was also noteworthy among younger athletes.

The research was published in the September issue of Pediatrics and is available online with guidelines outlined to prevent concussions by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

The researchers examined the data from hospital emergency departments all over the country. They found out that the injuries were inflicted majorly from football and ice hockey. Around 40% of the sports-related concussions were received by children aging between 8 and 13. In the team-related injuries, snow skiing, bicycling and playground activities contributed the most, which got almost doubled between 1997 and 2007 in 8-13 year olds and more than doubled in older teens.

Also, the study discovered that the concussions were higher among the female players, for which reasons are not clear, except the one that girls have weaker neck muscles, which is why they get head injuries easily, as told by Mark E. Halstead, MD, of Children's Hospital St. Louis.

The symptoms of concussions revealed by AAP are confusion, headache, fatigue, nausea, dizziness, slurred speech and ringing in the ears. AAP suggested not exerting the body unless the symptoms get resolved and those suffering with multiple head injuries are being advised to shun playing contact sports.