Does An Educational Intervention Improve Reporting Of Concussion In High School Athletes?

Concussion management is potentially complicated by the lack of reporting due to poor educational intervention in youth athletics. PURPOSE: To determine if an educational intervention would increase the awareness of a concussive injury and increase the numbers reported. METHODS: This study was a cross-sectional between groups design utilizing volunteers. High school athletes (N = 409; males N= 220 and females N = 189) aged 13-18 with a mean age of 14.78 + 1.38 years completed a concussion education survey during pre-participation physicals. A sub-sample (N = 68) of athletes were randomly assigned into two groups; concussion education (n = 34) and control (n = 34). Subjects were administered a survey, prior to and after watching a nine minute video about concussion incidence, symptoms and reporting conditions. The control group was taken from the same population and administered a survey prior to and after watching a nutrition video. Comparison of groups was calculated utilizing chi-square and dependent samples t-test in SPSS 13.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL). Significance levels were set a priori at 0.05. RESULTS: 78.7% (N = 350) of the total sample reporting not knowing the signs and symptoms of concussion prior to the study. 7.3% (N = 30) reported having at least one prior concussion. Significant difference between participants with a previous history of concussion and symptom knowledge (c2 (1, N = 409) = 5.656, P =.0.017). Groups were not significantly different for gender and knowledge of symptoms (c2 (1, N = 409) = 1.781, P = 0.182) or gender and previous history of concussion (c2 (1, N = 409) = 1.424, P = 0.233). Dependent T-tests calculated a significant difference between number of concussions reported at baseline between groups (F (2,66) = 6.89, P = 0.034). Pre-post analysis of symptoms and reported concussion were not significantly different. CONCLUSIONS: This study found that a large percentage of high school athletes do not know the signs and symptoms of concussion. Following an educational video, symptom knowledge and previous concussions reported increased. Education of those involved in athletics utilizing a standardized tool may increase reporting and aid in the assessment and management of concussion in this population.