Citation

Herriman M, Schweitzer ME, Volpp KG. JAMA Pediatr. 2019; 173(3): 215-216.

Affiliation

Penn Center for Health Incentives and Behavioral Economics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, American Medical Association)

DOI

10.1001/jamapediatrics.2018.4602

PMID

30688988

Abstract

Although 1.35 million children visit emergency departments for sports-related injuries each year in the United States, athletic bodies lack a systematic approach for monitoring injury risk and adopting interventions to curtail injuries. Rather than using randomized clinical trials or other evidence-based approaches to evaluate interventions, the decision-making process for adopting interventions is characterized by protracted debates that overweigh subjective factors, such as how sports have traditionally been played. The magnitude of this problem merits serious attention; more than 46.5 million children participate in team sports in the United States alone. Two underappreciated factors contribute to this situation: behavioral biases that distort and delay intervention decisions and a lack of data. In this Viewpoint, we draw lessons from behavioral economics, as well as prior sports injury intervention debates, to offer prescriptions for improving the decision-making processes for sports injury prevention ...

Language: en