Talking with young children about concussions: an exploratory study.
E Kroshus, D Gillard, J Haarbauer-Krupa and 2 others
PMID 28019016WHAT IT FOUND
Children aged 6 to 8 described concussion as a head or brain injury, and named dizziness, vomiting or headache.
Memory and mood symptoms were less often described. They saw rules and helmets as prevention. Parents were often mentioned.
Key findings
01Eighteen of the 20 children had heard of the word concussion.
02Nine participants named at least one somatic symptom, four named cognitive symptoms, and five named emotional symptoms.
03Seventeen of the 20 participants mentioned their parents at some point during the interview.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they found
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What it does not show
The study was exploratory and qualitative, with 20 children from a summer camp, so it cannot be generalized to all children aged 6 to 8. The sample was from a middle class suburb in the northeast United States, and 18 of 20 participated in organized sports, while only one quarter of children begin organized sports before age nine. Four children who thought they had sustained a concussion had no information available to judge the validity of the response. The paper did not test an education program, so it cannot show whether any message changes knowledge, reporting or behavior.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read these findings as evidence that concussion education works for young children. This was an exploratory interview study of 20 children from a summer camp, and it reports children's answers, not outcomes from an intervention.