SPORT CONCUSSION KNOWLEDGE BASE AND CURRENT PRACTICE– A SURVEY OF PHYSICIAN SECTIONS FROM THE ONTARIO MEDICAL ASSOCIATION

What are the knowledge, attitudes and beliefs regarding concussion of primary care physicians and family resident physicians in rural communities?

Background

Primary care physicians and family medicine resident physicians report continued gaps in knowledge when diagnosing and managing pediatric patients with concussion.

Methods

A cross-sectional electronic survey of 130 primary care physicians and family medicine resident physicians in the Northeastern Ontario Local Health Integration Network (LHIN). Descriptive statistics, chi-squared Fisher exact tests, were used to compare physicians versus resident physicians with two-tailed p < 0.05 (with 95% confidence intervals).

Results

With a 48% response rate, when treating concussions 44% of providers either did not use any specific clinical practice guideline, standardized assessment tool, could not recall the source of a specific tool/guideline or omitted answering the question. However, 61% of all respondents would refer some or all concussion patients to a specialist for treatment. At least 41% of providers indicated they lacked access to a ‘Provider Decision Support Tool’ specific to concussion, and 88% of the 25 providers were without access to discharge instructions.

Conclusion

Similar to other jurisdictions, Northeastern Ontario primary care physicians and family medicine resident physicians report gaps in knowledge for both diagnosis and management of pediatric concussion. Consequently, they did not use current guidelines or best practices to guide management.

Awareness and Perceived Value of Eye Tracking Technology for Concussion Assessment among Sports Medicine Clinicians: A Multinational Study

Objective: The awareness of concussion as a serious and frequently occurring sports injury and its management has evolved significantly. One viable objective diagnostic tool is eye tracking technology. The authors hypothesized that while clinicians may be aware that assessing eye movements in concussed athletes can be beneficial, it is possible that, due to the novelty of the eye tracking technology and limited exposure, only a few actually use it in their practice. The study aimed to assess the awareness of eye movement deficits associated with concussion amongst sports medicine clinicians and to determine the utilization and perceptions of the eye tracking technology for concussion diagnosis.Methods: An online 18-question survey was distributed internationally from January until December 2017 and completed by 171 sports medicine clinicians (sport physicians, therapists, general practitioners, neuropsychologists) from 32 countries.Results: Respondents indicated that subjectivity of assessments remained a major limitation of established diagnostic tools. Eye tracking technology, despite its potential to attenuate this limitation, was only used by 12% of respondents. To diagnose concussion, 77% did not use any eye movement assessment tools other than own clinical assessment. With the exception of abnormal pupil light reflex, which was checked by 68%, eye movement deficits were inspected by less than half of the respondents (46.3 ± 12%).Conclusion: Even among sports medicine clinicians who regularly attend to patients with concussions, there is insufficient awareness that concussion can lead to abnormal eye tracking behavior. Lack of exposure to the sensitive eye tracking equipment may be a limiting factor for using eye movement metrics for concussion diagnostics. Facilitating the awareness of objective methods, like eye tracking technology, may help assure the appropriate continuum of identification and treatment for concussed athletes. Increasing educational opportunities and practical experience of clinicians regarding concussive symptoms and potential innovative technology is strongly advocated.

Recognizing the Symptoms of Mental Illness following Concussions in the Sports Community: A Need for Improvement

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the awareness of concussion-related symptoms amongst members of the sports community in Canada.

METHODS

A cross-sectional national electronic survey was conducted. Youth athletes, parents, coaches and medical professionals across Canada were recruited through mailing lists from sports-related opt-in marketing databases. Participants were asked to identify, from a list of options, the symptoms of a concussion. The proportion of identified symptoms (categorized as physical, cognitive, mental health-related and overall) as well as participant factors associated with symptom recognition were analyzed.

RESULTS

The survey elicited 6,937 responses. Most of the respondents (92.1%) completed the English language survey, were male (57.7%), 35-54 years of age (61.7%), with post-secondary education (58.2%), or high reported yearly household income (>$80,000; 53.0%). There were respondents from all provinces and territories with the majority of respondents from Ontario (35.2%) or British Columbia (19.1%). While participants identified most of the physical (mean = 84.2% of symptoms) and cognitive (mean = 91.2% of symptoms), they on average only identified 53.5% of the mental health-related symptoms of concussions. Respondents who were older, with higher education and household income, or resided in the Northwest Territories or Alberta identified significantly more of the mental health-related symptoms listed.

INTERPRETATION

While Canadian youth athletes, parents, coaches and medical professionals are able to identify most of the physical and cognitive symptoms associated with concussion, identification of mental health-related symptoms of concussion is still lagging.