Evaluation of Spot Light: A Concussion Injury Management App for Youth Sports

Sports-related traumatic brain injuries (TBIs), including mTBIs - commonly referred to as concussions - are a serious public health concern. During the last decade, emergency department visits for sports and recreation related TBIs among youth, including concussions, increased by 62%.\[1\] Concussion rates among high school athletes have significantly increased over the past decade.\[2\] Although most sports-related concussions are mild injuries where the athlete fully recovers from symptoms within a week, \[3-5\] each year TBIs contribute to a substantial number of deaths and cases of permanent disability. While contact sports such as football have the highest incidence and rates of concussion, these injuries occur across a wide range of sports.\[5\] Diagnostic criteria and consensus return to play (RTP) guidelines exist, but clinicians have varying approaches to the diagnosis and management of sports-related concussions as these guidelines are almost completely unsupported by an evidence base. Increasing awareness of concussion signs and symptoms, improving sport specific coaching techniques, promoting good sportsmanship, providing appropriate protective equipment and responding quickly to injuries reduces the incidence, severity and long-term negative health effects of sports related concussions among children and adolescents.\[1\] Thus there is a critical need for the development of tools for prevention. Our long-term goal is to reduce the negative consequences of sports-related concussions, specifically in youth sports. The overall objective of this application, which is the first step toward attainment of our long-term goal, is to evaluate the effectiveness of Spot Light (a concussion injury management application \[app\] that organizes and coordinates diagnosis, management, and RTP procedures from injury to safe return to sport) (Appendix 1) when utilized by middle and high school football teams. Our central hypothesis is that middle and high school football teams randomized to receive Spot Light will report increased rates of concussion; increased referrals to physicians for care, and increased athlete compliance with RTP guidelines. The rationale that underlies the proposed research is that providing an easy-to-use app for sports-related concussions has a high probability of effectively helping people involved with youth sports better recognize, respond to, and ensure that athletes are fully recovered from sports-related concussion. We plan to test our central hypothesis and, thereby, attain the objective of this application by pursuing the following specific aims: Aim 1. Evaluate whether or not Spot Light increases reported rates of sports-related concussions. Working Hypothesis-teams using Spot Light will report a higher rate of concussion than teams without Spot Light. Aim 2. Evaluate whether or not Spot Light increases referrals to physicians for patient care following a sports-related concussion. Working Hypothesis-teams using Spot Light will refer more concussed athletes for treatment by a physician than teams without Spot Light. Aim 3. Evaluate whether or not Spot Light improves management of sports-related concussions. Working Hypothesis-injured athletes on teams utilizing Spot Light will exhibit higher compliance with RTP guidelines, than teams without Spot Light. It is anticipated that these aims will yield the following expected outcomes. We expect to determine whether there is increased reporting of concussion, referrals to physicians, and athlete compliance with RTP guidelines. We also expect to learn whether the app is adopted and utilized similarly when distributed to different levels of youth sports (middle vs. high school age) and different types of "reporters" (coaches vs. certified athletic trainers). We expect widespread effectiveness across age groups and types of reporters; these results would suggest that Spot Light is suitable for widespread distribution across a variety of youth sports and settings. These outcomes are expected to have an important positive impact because timely and proper diagnosis, management, and coordination of care and RTP decisions will ultimately reduce the negative consequences and impact of sports-related concussions, as will now be detailed in the next section.