A Culture that Fosters Concussions: Does Increased Education Lead to More Accurate Reporting of Concussions?

With over 1.7 million incidents reported annually, concussion has become the most common class of traumatic brain injury (TBI) in the United States (Bazarian, Zhu, Blyth, Borrino, & Zhong, 2012). As staggering a statistic as this may be, many believe it fails to represent the true number of concussions because the non-reporting of symptoms has been commonplace among athletes (Khurana & Kaye, 2012; Williamson & Goodman, 2006). The aim of this study was to determine those factors that influence the reporting of concussion symptoms. Specific variables that were examined include the amount of concussion education provided (determined by requisite amount of concussion education in minutes), number of required participants in training, the utilization of baseline neurocognitive testing, the number of years concussion legislation has been in place, and the presence of a certified athletic trainer. A review of current literature is included. This study used original data, collected from superintendents of high schools across the country. Participants completed an online survey, via Survey Monkey, which included questions regarding the number of student-athletes, number of diagnosed concussions, amount of requisite concussion education, and concussion management protocols at each high school. The number of years that concussion legislation has been in place was found to be a significant factor in the reporting of concussions. The findings can be used to further improve concussion management in high schools and raise awareness about the occurrence of non-reporting in sports. Potential explanations, limitations, and implications are explored as well