Concussion perceptions and reporting behaviours of community sport athletes.

OBJECTIVES

Sport-related concussions are a global health concern. Athletes consistently underreport sport-related concussions, and knowledge and attitudes about sport-related concussions vary between levels of sport competition and according to a range of factors. It is unclear how concussion knowledge and attitudes relate to reporting behaviours amongst community sport athletes. The current study aimed to i) investigate how concussion history and gender influence concussion perceptions, and ii) examine how concussion history, and knowledge and attitudes towards the injury influence reporting behaviours.

DESIGN

Cross-sectional design.

METHODS

Participants were over 18 years (n = 375; 174 woman, 194 man, 6 non-binary, 1 no response) and participated in community sport in Australia. Participants completed an online survey about their concussion history, perceptions, knowledge, attitudes, and reporting behaviours of sport-related concussions.

RESULTS

Hierarchical regression highlighted that those with a concussion history view sport-related concussions to be more serious than those with no concussion history, and that men were more likely to agree that their actions could control the effects of sport-related concussion symptoms. Logistic regression revealed no significant relationship between concussion knowledge and reporting behaviours (p = 0.081 to 0.960), but significant relationships between attitudes towards concussion and reporting behaviours were present (p ≤ 0.018). Lastly, significant relationships (p ≤ 0.040) between concussion history and reporting behaviours were found for seven of the 13 reporting behaviours.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings highlight the importance of athlete attitudes towards sport-related concussions within Australian community sport.