Kent State works to improve athlete safety with concussion protocol

An estimated 3,417 sports related concussions occur every year among division one football teams in the NCAA.  However, only 501 of those concussions have been publicly reported in the last three seasons.

 

The NFL requires teams to publicly disclose injuries, including concussions, allowing experts to analyze the numbers reported to see if there is any change from season to season. However, the NCAA does not require any team to report concussions.

 

Timothy Bella of Al Jazeera America has been tracking publicly reported concussions in the NCAA since 2013 and found there were only 166 publicly reported concussions out of 128 teams during the 2015 season.  This data shows that the number of concussions reported every year is a small fraction of how many actually occur throughout each season.

 

Of the 128 teams, only 67 publicly reported at least one concussion.  Last year, four concussions were publicly reported in the Mid-American Conference. Kent State University publicly reported one concussion during the 2015 season.

 

To help ensure safety amongst players, Kent State has its own concussion policy, requiring all athletes to complete a baseline concussion test prior to the start of each season.

 

Page two, section eight, of Kent State’s concussion protocol states, “All student-athletes will receive baseline testing in the Sport Concussion Assessment Tool – 3rd Edition (SCAT3) as part of the pre-participation exam annually. Also, Student-athletes in the sports of Football, Field Hockey, Soccer, Men’s and Women’s Basketball, Gymnastics, Wrestling, Pole Vaulting, Softball, Baseball, Volleyball, and Cheerleading will perform computerized ImPACT baseline testing biannually.”

 

Trent Stratton, Director of Sports Medicine at Kent State said this baseline test is used to determine the severity of a concussion an athlete sustained.

 

“We preform a baseline test on every student annually when they get a physical done,” Stratton said.  “This gives us an idea of where they are normally.”

 

Kent State senior Tad France said the university required all athletes on the football team to complete a baseline concussion test in the summer before the season.

 

“It’s all a bunch of shapes and memorization,” France said.  “You have to try and remember how stuff is located.  It’s kind of like an I.Q. test, but it’s timed and you have to remember stuff from the beginning of the test to the end of the test.  It can actually be pretty challenging.”

 

Kent State has its own protocol if an athlete does show signs of a concussion.  Stratton said athletes showing concussion-like symptoms are required to complete a series of tests before allowing them to participate again.

 

“We do a scat SCAT3, which is a standard concussion assessment tool,” Stratton said.  “It’s a series of questions that ask what their symptoms are.  They rate it on a scale of zero to six—zero being nothing and six being the worst thing they ever experienced.”

 

Stratton said they ask them a series of questions after an athlete shows concussion-like symptoms.  Stratton’s staff asks the athlete if they know the year, the month and the day.  They also give a series of five words the athlete must repeat them back three times in a row. These athletes are given a series of numbers they must remember and repeat them backwards.

 

The medical staff also checks the athlete’s balance using a point system in order to assess the severity of the concussion.  Stratton said they make the athletes stand on two feet then each foot alone with their eyes closed for 20 seconds.

 

“Anytime their hand comes off their hip—that’s a point,” Stratton said.  “Anytime their trunk sways more than 30 degrees—that’s a point.  We record that at each of those positions and you want the least amount of points possible.”

 

Kent State junior defensive end Anthony Johnson said he missed two weeks last season after he sustained a concussion and felt dizzy during practice the following week.

 

“I went to practice the one day and told them my head was hurting,” Johnson said.  “They started asking me all types of questions and basically gave me a concussion test.”

 

Johnson said he wasn’t allowed to return to practice until he was examined and showed no signs of symptoms.

 

“You had to be symptom free—completely symptom free,” Johnson said.  “Not 90 percent. Not 95 percent.  You had to be 100 percent and if you’re not, then they aren’t going to let you come back.”

 

Stratton said him and his staff closely monitor athletes with concussions and use an electronic database to store every athlete’s information.

 

“Each student has an electronic file that all of their medical history is in there,” Stratton said.  “We can keep track of when they sustained an injury and that standard concussion form is included in there. We keep track of when they have seen a physician and how they are progressing daily.”

 

With all this new research and data, concussions are becoming more and more serious.  Schools like Kent State are continuing to set concussion protocol standards in order to maintain the health and safety of the players.  Stratton said although there is no way to really prevent concussions, there is a way to manage them.

 

“There will never be a way to prevent concussions just like there is never a way to prevent car accidents,” Stratton said.  “I put it in the same category because you want to avoid them, but I don’t feel like you can ever prevent them.  I think the correct attention is being placed on how you manage it.”

-Story written by: Zac Sommer

-Video Edited by: Ty Sugick