Just a few weeks ago, a friend of mine sustained a concussion playing football in his final regular season college game of the season. This caused me to look further into the NCAA’s regulations concerning athlete education and reporting rules for this injury. While a variety of colleges and universities have introduced programs to help protect athletes from concussions, a recent Harvard study has concluded that, when examining the specific components of those plans, many schools still fail to meet accepted standards.

According to an article from WebMD.com, the most common and least severe type of traumatic brain injury is a concussion. Between the years 2001 and 2009, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, estimated that 173,285 people under the age 19 were treated in hospital emergency rooms for concussion related sports and activities. Concussions can be difficult to diagnose and signs may not appear for days or weeks after the injury.

Surprisingly, universities are not actually required to report a plan to the NCAA. This is likely to result in each school having a divergent set of actions from the recommended guidelines. However, integrity is dependent on self-reporting practices. While these rules have been in place for a number of years, only until recently have they been evaluated with a systematic study.

Researchers just conducted a comprehensive examination of whether universities actually comply with the Concussion Policy and Legislation adopted by the NCAA in 2010. They found these results through the use of a surveys sent to 1,066 NCAA institutions. They asked population-specific questions about institutional concussion management. Due to the use of surveys, some degree of response bias will be inevitable. However, the large sample size used in the study allowed researchers to increase the accuracy of their results and gain information from a representative group.

Interestingly, 92 percent of schools specified that they have instituted a concussion management plan. This should include the availability of a team doctor, an athletic trainer, and annual athlete concussion education. However, the conclusions suggested that, “many schools could improve in a number of areas, particularly enhanced education of coaches and athletes on the risks of concussion and increasing sports medicine staffing.”

Specifically in the study, researchers found that athlete and coach education on concussions positively correlates with compliance to reporting situations. This is an area that researchers suggest schools can improve. However, it is indefinite whether causation is a factor. The authors, Christine Baugh, a Harvard Health Policy Ph.D. student, and Emily Kroshus, a Post Doctoral Fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health, both desire that the results of the study will serve to motivate the NCAA to use its regulatory capabilities to improve concussion policies and increase medical staffing.

As Kroshus asserts, “figuring out how to most effectively and feasibly encourage implementation is a difficult proposition, given the multifaceted nature of effective concussion management.” Nevertheless, this study may serve as the first step in helping the NCAA recognize the challenges that they and schools will face in encouraging compliance. More research that provides evidence of the seriousness of this injury may be necessary to convince the NCAA to use its regulatory capabilities to ensure athlete safety.

Sources:

http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/press-releases/harvard-study-offers-first-ever-look-at-how-ncaa-concussion-guidelines-are-followed/

http://ajs.sagepub.com/content/early/2014/10/20/0363546514553090.abstract

http://www.webmd.com/brain/concussion-traumatic-brain-injury-symptoms-causes-treatments?page=2

http://www.bu.edu/cte/about/leadership/christine-baugh/