Need for information and resources on the prevention, recognition, and response to concussion for school professionals

Background: Youth ages 5–18 years account for 65% of emergency department visits for sports and recreation-related TBIs. A TBI can cause short- or long-term problems affecting a student's memory, learning, and concentration. Thus, CDC developed Heads Up to Schools: Know Your Concussion ABCs to deliver concussion information to school professionals on concussion identification and management.

Methods: CDC conducted 42 one hour telephone interviews with school nurses, counselors, teachers, and administrators from elementary, middle, and high schools, in two phases. The first phase provided feedback on the content, design and format of materials about concussions in schools. Extensive revisions were made to the materials based on the feedback. A second phase was conducted to test revised materials. Information was also gathered feedback on distribution channels for reaching school professionals.

Results: During the first phase, participants shared insights that led to extensive revisions of the materials. Participants liked the concise, clear style of the content, but recommended changes to its organization. They confirmed that the content should be unique for each audience and felt the overall design was too dark and geared toward younger students. During the second phase, participants expressed strong approval of the revised design, creative use of graphics, and the reorganization of content.

Conclusion: Materials for school professionals should be concise with simple, clear messages targeted for each audience and designs should be colorful and reflect students in grades K-12. Partnering with school-related professional organizations helps build credibility for the resources and provides effective dissemination channels for materials.