Feel good or do good law? mapping the rapid implementation and evolution of youth sports concussion laws using lawatlas workbench

Each year as many as 300,000 young people suffer concussions from playing sports. These traumatic brain injuries have serious short and long term effects. With increased awareness lead by advocacy groups, the media and professional sports associations, there was a rapid adoption by states of laws aimed at reducing harm from sports concussions.

In 2012, a legal database of 50 states was created in LawAtlas of youth sports TBI-reduction laws. In 2013, a systematic updating process was used to capture any changes in key features of current law or the adoption of new law. Statutory provisions were reviewed for their consistency with current scientific understanding of the causes, prevention, and treatment of youth TBI's.

The efforts of concussion prevention advocates, professional sports associations and the media help keep the spotlight on the issue of traumatic brain injury as an area for policy action. It appears that the initial laws in this area were passed in a reactionary fashion missing important features for prevention of the 2nd concussion or exacerbation of the first injury. Continued research focused on evaluating the impact of such laws along with further innovation in understanding the epidemiology of TBI's will be needed to develop a more comprehensive TBI-reduction solution. It will be important to integrate evidence-based research into the policy process as these laws continue to evolve.