Literature Review On Sports Concussions

Meehan, D’Hemecourt, Collins and Comstock (2011) described common medical providers and medical studies that are used to assess sport concussions. In addition, Meehan et al. (2011) evaluated how different medical providers effect timing of return to play, frequency of imaging, and frequency of neuropsychological testing. Between 2009 and 2010, 192 different high schools reported data for athletes who competed in sports through the High School Reporting Information Online (HS RIO) injury surveillance system. For each injury, a comprehensive injury report was completed and submitted to HS RIO by the athlete’s athletic trainer (AT). All concussions recorded on HS RIO, occurred during participation in organized sports and resulted in care from a medical provider (Meehan, D’Hemecourt, Collins & Comstock, 2011). Overall, between 2009 and 2010, there were 1056 reported concussions, 75% of which were sustained by males (Mehann et al., 2011).
(2011) performed an X2 analysis on all categorical variables, which included the timing of return to play (i.e., 1 to 2 days, 3 to 6 days, 7 to 9 days, 10 to 21 days, and 22 or more days). Fisher exact test for comparisons among specialties, (i.e., registered nurses and physician assistants) was implemented because of the limited amount of those professionals that were involved in the treatment of sport concussions. Logistic regression analyses were implemented to assess for associations between the dependent variable and two independent variables. The dependent variable was the length in time it took athletes to return to play, and the two independent variables included the type of provider and the duration of the symptoms (Meehan et al.,