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Objective: Concussions in high school athletes generally go under-reported. For multiple reasons, many athletes do not seek medical care. We investigated whether a brief educational lecture could improve understanding of the disease process in this population. Design: Knowledge assessment survey Setting: High schools across two counties (Hampshire, Franklin) in Massachusetts
Patients: High school athletes Intervention: Athletes listened to an approximately 30-minute lecture on concussion education. They took a 6-question true/false quiz (Figure 1A) before and after the lecture to evaluate their general understanding of the material. Main Outcome Measures: Improvement in test scores after the lecture Results: 672 high school athletes across two counties participated in the educational activity (249 Hampshire County, 423 Franklin county). 37.2% of the population had proficient knowledge (test score >83%) before the education lecture, and 63.8% of the population attained proficiency after the education lecture (Figure 1B). A significant number of students improved on test performance after undergoing concussion education (p=0.029). These results were consistent across both Hampshire and Franklin counties (p=0.0194 and 0.0404, respectively). A significant proportion of students chose correct answers on post-test questions after initially choosing the wrong answer on pre-test (p<0.0001), with the exception of question 2, which had the highest initial scores on pre-test (p=0.2031) (Figure 1C). Conclusion:
We have demonstrated an effective model of concussion education for high school athletes across multiple high schools. This intervention is critically important to help students identify and understand the signs and symptoms as well as consequences of concussions.