Concussion danger for football players has been a hot-button topic concerning both professional and youth athletes. A new study by the University of Washington School of Medicine shows most parents would support implementing a minimum age for tackling to keep kids safe.

The study led by Sara P.D. Chrisman, UW Medicine assistant professor of pediatrics, found that 61% of parents support implementing a minimum age for tackling in football. For the study, 1,025 parents were surveyed -- 55% were mothers and 45% were fathers — and were selected from all areas of the United States.

Just 15% of those surveyed were opposed to adding an age restriction. The remaining 24% said they would maybe support a minimum age for tackling.

It is not known how many of the parents surveyed have children who play sports.

"I think it adds to that discussion that parents are also in support of some ways of mitigating risk in youth sports," Chrisman said in a video published by UW Medicine.

How dangerous are concussions to youth athletes? Another recent study led by Chrisman followed 863 youth football players over two 10-week fall seasons and showed a 5.1% confirmed concussion incident rate per season with 51 total sustained football-related concussions over two years.

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The risk is lower than what most surveyed parents perceived; 83% thought over 10 of 100 athletes suffered a concussion per year and 25% thought over 50 out of 100 athletes were affected.

But just because the risk is lower than perceived doesn't mean there's no risk. And about half of football injuries happen during a tackle.

"All activities that our kids do have risk," Chrisman said. "The truth is, if you're going to bike down the street, that has risk. If you're going to be a mountain climber, that has risk.

"All of them also come with benefits, and really trying to understand how we can balance those and understand how individual families, what their values lie with, that's really the answer. There's not a simple solution."

Football is popular among youth athletes in the United States. An estimated 5 million kids and teens play football in the U.S. each year, about 1 million of whom are between the ages of 6 and 12. And there's no denying that there are benefits to playing.

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"Sports are a really important way for kids to get exercise," Chrisman said in the video. "They're fun, they have social support, they have structure, but all sports have a cost-benefit ratio, and really I feel like our job as pediatricians, as public health researchers, is to try to make sports safer so that kids can participate, and I think parents are in support of that."

Following research performed in Canada, for example, a rule imposed in September 2013 limits body-checking to players ages 13 and up. The U.S. Soccer Federation also limits heading to youth athletes ages 11 and up.

As for football in America? No changes have been made to any contact rules just yet, but states like Massachusetts and Illinois have proposed tackle bans on kids younger than seventh grade or 12 years old, respectively. California, New York and New Jersey have also had their own efforts.

To see key takeaways from the study, click through the slideshow above.
