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Abstract
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Context: Concussion management is potentially complicated by the lack of reporting due to poor educational intervention in youth athletics.
OBJECTIVE: Determine if a concussion-education video developed for high school athletes will increase the reporting of concussive injuries and symptom recognition in this group.
DESIGN: Cross-sectional, between groups. Setting: Athletes participating in South Carolina interscholastic athletics. Patients or Other Participants: High school athletes (N = 68; males n = 42; females n = 26; mean age = 14.78 ± 1.38 years) participated in this study. The athletes were randomly assigned into 2 groups: concussion education (n = 34) and control (n = 34). Main Outcome Measures: Participants were administered a survey before and after watching a video about concussion incidence, symptoms, and reporting conditions (intervention group) or a nutrition video (control group). Total symptom score and survey items served as dependent variables. Examination of group differences was performed through χ2 analyses and repeated-measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) calculations in SPSS 19.0 (SPSS Inc, Chicago, IL). Significance levels were set a priori at.05.
RESULTS: Of all participants, 70.5% (48/68) reported not knowing the signs and symptoms of concussion before the study, and 26.5% (n = 18) reported having had at least 1 prior concussion. A statistically significant difference existed between those reporting having vs. not having knowledge of the signs and symptoms of concussion on total symptom score at baseline (t1,66 = 2.17, P =.038). Repeated-measures ANOVA calculated a statistically significant difference for concussion symptom recognition before and after the intervention (F1,66 = 7.47, P =.008) Conclusions: A large percentage of high school athletes do not know the signs and symptoms of concussion. After an educational video, participants' symptom knowledge and previous concussions reported increased. Education of those involved in athletics using a standardized tool may increase reporting and aid in the assessment and management of concussion in this population.
Language: en |