The Athletic Health Care and Training Program was developed to meet the educational, organizational and record-keeping needs of the interscholastic athletic program of the Seattle Public Schools. The program components were the education of coaches, school nurses and student trainers; development of a centralized training room; implementation of written procedures, and establishment of a record-keeping system. At the end of the three-year study period, schools involved in the program were better prepared to handle emergencies than were control schools.
This study aimed to investigate whether endorsement of "difficulty coping" questions on two self-report measures would be affected by whether or not women had to put their name on the questionnaires. In addition, a small survey of mental health professionals was conducted to see what they thought the study would find. Women (n= 211) attending maternal and child health clinics completed two self-report measures of mood and experience of motherhood. Women were either asked to write their name on the forms and were told that the project officer would check their forms once completed ("named" condition) or asked not to put their name on the forms and that the forms would not be looked at ("anonymous" condition). Perinatal mental health professionals (n= 44) completed an anonymous survey asking them what they considered the study would find. Most health professionals (77.3%) expected that the anonymous condition would result in more "honest" responding by women-that is, there would be a higher rate of women admitting to not coping in the anonymous condition. To the contrary, however, this was not found. There were no differences between the rates of endorsement of "not currently coping" by women in the two conditions, a finding only expected by 13.6% of the professionals. There was a small, but statistically significant, difference in women reporting whether they had a prior history of difficulty coping, with more women in the named condition endorsing this. Rates of postnatal distress or depression, based upon responses to self-report mood or similar questionnaires, are unlikely to be affected by whether participants are required to put their name on the measures or not or whether they anticipate that their responses will be scrutinized. This is an unexpected finding by a sample of mental health professionals interested in the perinatal mental health field, and thus, the study has "new knowledge" significance.
Context
Cycling crashes are common among recreational and competitive riders and may result in head and bodily trauma. Information is limited regarding the signs and symptoms of head injury (HI) after cycling crashes, medical treatment, and recovery.
Objectives
To evaluate concussion-like symptom reporting after cycling crashes with or without HI in recreational and competitive cyclists and to assess crash characteristics and follow-up medical care.
Design
Cross-sectional study.
Setting
Voluntary online survey.
Patients or Other Participants
A convenience sample of 780 cyclists residing in the United States: 528 males, 249 females, 2 gender queer/nonbinary, and 1 transgender female.
Main Outcome Measure(s)
Survey-based, self-reported signs and symptoms of HI, including the third edition of the Sport Concussion Assessment Tool (SCAT3) symptom checklist, loss of consciousness, posttraumatic amnesia, and helmet damage.
Results
Of the participants, 403 reported crashes in the previous 2 years. Cyclists who self-reported no significant injury after their crash were excluded, leaving 77 HI reporters (HI group) and 260 trauma controls (TC group). The HI group more frequently reported experiencing 17 of the 22 symptoms on the SCAT3 symptom checklist. The HI group described a 4-fold higher incidence of loss of consciousness (HI = 13/77 [16.9%] versus TC = 11/2600 [4.2%]) and memory loss immediately after the crash (HI = 44/77 [57.1%] versus TC = 37/260 [14.2%]). The HI group reported major, noncosmetic helmet damage 2.5 times more frequently than the TC group (HI = 49/77 [63.6%] versus TC = 67/260 [25.8%]).
Conclusions
The findings suggest that a standardized concussion assessment is needed for cyclists who experience major trauma.
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