Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2016 Mar;1(1):CNC6.
doi: 10.2217/cnc.15.6. Epub 2015 Aug 6.

Concussion management in US college football: progress and pitfalls

Christine M Baugh  1 , Emily Kroshus  2
Affiliations

Concussion management in US college football: progress and pitfalls

Christine M Baugh et al. Concussion. 2016 Mar.

Abstract

Reducing the frequency and severity of concussions from sport is an important issue in public health currently addressed by a multifaceted approach. Given the large number of participants and the comparatively high risk of injury, American football is an important sport to consider when examining concussion management practices. Focusing on American football at the collegiate level, this manuscript describes current research regarding concussion epidemiology, policy, implementation of clinical diagnosis, management and return-to-play standards and athlete concussion education. Although American collegiate sports leagues have put forth concussion-related policies in recent years, the implementation of these policies and related effects on athlete concussion education, clinical management of concussion and ultimately athlete health outcomes are not well understood. Additional research is needed.

Keywords: American football; college; concussion; health education; health policy; public health.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Financial & competing interests disclosure

C Baugh’s doctoral education is funded by the National Institutes of Mental Health of the NIH award number T32MH019733. C Baugh received a graduate student grant award from the National Collegiate Athletic Association. No funds from this award were used for the purposes of this manuscript. E Kroshus is employed as a post-doctoral research fellow by the National Collegiate Athletic Association. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

References

    1. National Federation of State High School Associations. High school sport participation increases for 25th consecutive year. www.nfhs.org/articles/high-school-participationincreases-for-25th-consec...
    1. National Collegiate Athletic Association. NCAA sports sponsorship and participation rates: 1981–82 to 2012–13, 2013. www.ncaapublications.com/productdownloads/PR2014.pdf
    1. Kilcoyne KG, Dickens JF, Svoboda SJ, et al. Reported concussion rates for three Division I football programs: an evaluation of the new NCAA concussion policy. Sports Health. 2014;6(5):402–405. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Gessel LM, Fields SK, Collins CL, Dick RW, Comstock RD. Concussions among United States high school and collegiate athletes. J. Athl. Train. 2007;42:495–503. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Dompier TP, Kerr ZY, Marshall SW, et al. Incidence of concussion during practice and games in youth, high school, and collegiate American football players. JAMA Peds. 2015 Epub ahead of print. - PubMed

    2. •• Recent article describing rates of concussion in youth, high school and college football across different types of practices and games. Finds higher rates of injury in games but higher numbers of total injury in practice.

LinkOut - more resources