Availability of Athletic Trainers Matters in the Detection and Management of Sports-Related Concussions

Proper reporting and care of sports-related concussion are critical for athletes returning to activity safely. However, these critical steps in concussion management often rely on having access to healthcare professionals. The availability of athletic trainers varies among high schools in the United States and it remains unknown how athletic trainer availability relates to sports-related concussion reporting and management. McGuine and colleagues completed a prospective cohort study to better understand the relationship between the availability of an athletic trainer and the reporting and treatment of sports-related concussion in secondary schools. The authors enrolled 31 high schools in Wisconsin. All high schools received athletic training services from a local or regional medical center. The authors categorized the availability of an athletic trainer based on the number of athletes an athletic trainer expected to serve per hour. Lower numbers typically meant an athletic trainer spent more hours at the school or had fewer student-athletes: high availability (<20.0 athletes/AT hour), medium availability (20.0-40.0 athletes/AT hour), and low availability (>40.0 athletes/AT hour). Researchers recruited all potential participants and collected demographic data, baseline symptoms. Athletic trainers then recorded the numbers of athlete exposures (practices, competitions, or conditioning session), any suspected sports-related concussion, sport, injury mechanism, position, duration of symptoms, loss of consciousness, immediate actions taken, and post-concussion management activities. Overall, high schools in the low availability category were primarily publicly funded and located in more rural settings. A total of 225 (9.2%) participant reported a sports-related concussion. Compared with student-athletes in high-availability schools, student-athletes in the low-availability schools were…