Some concussion education more useful than others, parents say

(Press-News.org) ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Many parents whose kids participate in athletics will be asked to sign a waiver about concussion education, but that's not enough to ensure parents are confident about handling the injury, according to a new University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health.

In the poll, about half of the 912 parents of middle and high school children surveyed reported participation in some type of concussion education: 23% have read a brochure or online information 17% have watched a video or attended a presentation 11% have signed a waiver form, with no other educational component 49% report no concussion education at all

Concussion education is more common among parents of children who play sports compared to non-sports parents (58% vs 31%).

"It is good news that many parents report they have received concussion education. We found, however, that the format of that concussion education really matters. The way the concussion information is delivered is linked to the parents' confidence about managing their child's injury," says Sarah J. Clark, M.P.H., associate director of the National Poll on Children's Health and associate research scientist in the University of Michigan Department of Pediatrics and U-M Medical School.

"Many schools mandate that a waiver form to be signed, but the danger is that parents will skip over information to get to that required signature line."

The poll showed that 63 percent of parents who watched a video or a presentation rated it as very useful. Forty-one percent of parents who read a brochure or online information rated that as very useful.

However, only 11 percent of parents whose only concussion education was signing a waiver form reported that was very useful.

"If the waiver is done online or on a form returned to school, parents may be left without information at home to guide them if or when their child is injured," says Clark, who is also a member of the U-M Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control estimates that each year, nearly 175,000 children are treated in US emergency rooms for concussions related to sports or recreational activities, including bicycling, football, playground activities, basketball and soccer. Research has shown that the healing process for a concussion is different for kids than adults and that repeated concussions in a short time period are particularly dangerous.

Parents should get information about when to seek medical attention, monitoring the child's symptoms, and limiting physical activity until symptoms have subsided, says Clark. Health care providers also may recommend limiting homework and other mental activities to allow the brain to heal.

"Parents play a key role in deciding when a child returns to school and extracurricular activities, and concussion education can assist them in making good decisions," Clark says. "So one solution could be to offer multiple education formats to ensure that parents truly hear the concussion information rather than focusing on just signing a form."

INFORMATION: Broadcast-quality video is available on request. See the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0E6CTr5ckBs

Full report: C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health http://mottnpch.org/reports-surveys/head-smart-parents-get-confidence-boost-concussion-education

Website: Check out the Poll's website: MottNPCH.org. You can search and browse over 80 NPCH Reports, suggest topics for future polls, share your opinion in a quick poll, and view information on popular topics. The National Poll on Children's Health team welcomes feedback on the website, including features you'd like to see added. To share feedback, e-mail NPCH@med.umich.edu.

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Twitter: @MottNPCH

Additional Resources Michigan Neurosport: http://www.uofmhealth.org/neurosport Kidshealth.org: http://kidshealth.org/parent/firstaid_safe/home/concussions.html Centers for Disease Control: http://www.cdc.gov/concussion/pdf/TBI_factsheets_PARENTS-508-a.pdf

Purpose/Funding The C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health – based at the Child Health Evaluation and Research Unit at the University of Michigan and funded by the Department of Pediatrics and Communicable Diseases and the University of Michigan Health System – is designed to measure major healthcare issues and trends for U.S. children.

Data Source: This report presents findings from a nationally representative household survey conducted exclusively by GfK Custom Research, LLC (GfK) for C.S. Mott Children's Hospital via a method used in many published studies. The survey was administered in March 2014 to a randomly selected, stratified group of adults age 18 and older from GfK's web-enabled KnowledgePanel®, that closely resembles the U.S. population. Responses from parents with a child age 10-17 (n=912) were used for this report. The sample was subsequently weighted to reflect population figures from the Census Bureau. The survey completion rate was 53 percent among panel members contacted to participate. The margin of error is ±3 to 4 percentage points.

Findings from the U-M C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health do not represent the opinions of the investigators or the opinions of the University of Michigan.