I-Care
Concussion reporting behaviours in Australian Football
Sports-related concussion is a major public health problem globally, with incidence increasing, and up to 60% of athletes not reporting their symptoms. Concussion diagnosis continues to rely on the athlete and their early disclosure of symptoms after a head impact. Without timely removal from activity and graded return-to-play, athletes are risking prolonged recovery or persistent symptoms. While the Australian Football League have concussion guidelines for both elite and community levels of play, barriers with awareness and compliance to the guidelines likely remain.
This project aims to explore concussion knowledge, attitude, reporting intentions and behaviours in elite and community men’s and women’s Australian Football players. This will help us understand what strategies and services could be beneficial for players, clubs and other external influences to achieve safer concussion behaviours.
Our mission
Our mission was to co-design an injury prevention program with the AFL, coaches, players, AFLW staff, and injury prevention experts. The uptake of injury prevention programs is low for many reasons (e.g. time to incorporate, lack of sport specificity, lack of confidence from coaches to deliver). Therefore, we aimed to design a program that addressed common barriers and was specific to the unique demands and context of Australian Football. Our current program of research is focused on evaluating the Prep to Play program.
Investigators
Brooke E Patterson, Kay M Crossley, Alex Donaldson, Dana Wong, Andrea M Bruder, Melissa J Haberfield, Marc-Olivier Dubé, Libby J Gracias, Sarah J Lampard, Josh Hill, Michael Makdissi, Jonathan Reyes, Catherine Wilmott
PhD candidates
Industry support
This project is funded by the Victorian Department of Health and is being led by La Trobe University in collaboration with the Australian Football League.
Grants
Victorian Department of Health Grant