An Examination of Concussion Education Practices

Abstract

The purpose of this research project was to examine concussion education practices, and to recommend effective ways of delivering concussion education materials. A blended design included both quantitative and qualitative methods. The quantitative component was an evaluation of three separate concussion education tools (video, athlete’s story, video + athlete’s story) with parents, coaches, managers, and trainers of girls’ minor hockey teams using the RoCKAS-ST questionnaire completed pre- and post-educational seminar. A repeated-measures ANOVA revealed that all groups scored high on the baseline measure of concussion knowledge and there were no significant differences in the effectiveness of the education tool used. There were some marked discrepancies between concussion knowledge scores and attitude scores. The qualitative component examined conference materials from the 4th International Concussion Summit hosted by the District School Board of Niagara in April 2016, using manifest and latent analysis. Qualitative analysis findings indicated the target audience should be the ‘driver’ for who delivers the educational message, messages should be tailored towards the specific audience, e.g. parents, coaches, athletes, and knowledge transfer should be an ongoing process.