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Chronic Under-Reporting Of Concussion: Is Changing The Culture A Realistic Solution?

 

If your child plays a contact or collision sport, whether at the youth, middle school or high school level, odds are that at some point in their athletic career they will suffer a concussion. How well they recover depends a lot on how quickly their concussion is identified so they can be removed from practice or game action. 

A lot of student-athletes - a declining percentage, fortunately - don't appreciate precisely when they have suffered a concussion. There are a lot of reasons:

Most athletes won't self-report concussion symptoms to sideline personnel, much less voluntarily remove themselves from the game. Changing the culture is one way to address the problem of chronic under-reporting, but it can't be counted on as a panacea.

Athletes' Resistance To Self-Reporting of Concussion Continues Despite Increased Education

Athletes continue to under-report concussion even when they know the signs and symptoms find recent research, which suggest that efforts to break the code of silence which pervades contact sports, and change the attitudes of athletes towards reporting concussion, are not working.

Honest Self-Reporting Of Concussion Symptoms Critical

Honest self-reporting by athletes of concussion signs and symptoms, both their own and those of their teammates, and not returning to play until all symptoms have cleared both at rest and with exercise is critical for the short- and long-term health of youth and high school athletes.
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