Citation

Buckley TA. J. Sport Health Sci. 2021; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, Shanghai University of Sport, Publisher Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.jshs.2021.01.005

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The topic of sports related concussion has been, and will likely continue to be, one of the most challenging topics in sports medicine. The last 2 decades of research has fundamentally altered clinicians and the public's view of concussions from a relatively minor "ding" to be shaken off with rapid return to play to the current realization that concussions are brain injuries with potential lifelong consequences. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the Department of Defense (DoD) Concussion Assessment, Research and Education (CARE) Consortium Study1 currently elucidating the natural history of concussion which will provide clinicians critical recommendations on the diagnosis and management; however, many neuropsychosocial questions remain unanswered. Thus, this special topic of the Journal of Sport and Health Science (JSHS) is dedicated to address key concussion related questions which extend beyond typical clinical concussion management to include broad public health related concerns.

The preponderance of concussion research is focused on high school and college athletes as well as military members; however, in the opening paper Kerr et al. (insert reference hyperlink) investigate concussion attitude and knowledge in 1224 parents of middle school (Grades 5-9) students. Kerr reported that women, white race, higher parental age, and greater competitiveness were associated with higher knowledge while white race and older parental age were associated with more positive care seeking attitudes. As concussions which occur early in life are associated with more subsequent concussions,2 early recognition and appropriate treatment are critical and the results of this study identify areas to improve parent's knowledge and attitudes before their children reach the high school level.

Parental knowledge and attitude is critical as parents can influence their children's decisions on sports participation and the risk of repetitive head impacts in sports remains an ongoing concern.3,4 In the second article, Muñoz et al. (insert reference hyperlink) investigate purposeful soccer heading and biomarkers (extracellular vesicles) in healthy adults and reported that heading altered extracellular vesicle plasma content, but not size or number of the vesicles. These findings further the use of blood borne biomarkers as an emerging assessment technique and provides an avenue to improve a mechanistic understanding on neurological effects of repetitive head impacts...

Language: en