Heads up
Covassin T, Elbin RJ, Sarmiento K.(2012) Educating coaches about concussion in sports: evaluation of the CDC’s ‘‘Heads Up: Concussion in Youth Sports’’ initiative. Journal of School Health. 82, [233-238].

Purpose The purpose of this study was to assess the perceptions of youth sport coaches who have received the CDC's " Heads Up: Concussion in Youth Sports" materials in preventing, recognizing, and responding to concussions.

Sample The sample was random, including 1000 youth sport coaches selected from the National Alliance for Youth Sports (NAYS) organization. Sports involved were football, basketball, softball, soccer, cheerleading, volleyball, and baseball. The members from the (NAYS) were sent emails from the CDC's "Heads Up: Concussion in Youth Sports" telling coaches that they could order the materials for free. The email included a survey link from the database which described the study for involvement. The survey was short and only took roughly ten minutes to complete.

Methods Instruments used were a 22-item online survey created by a team of youth sport coaches, certified athletic trainers, sports medicine physicians, and CDC members. The questions were related to awareness of sports-related concussion, demographics, and the usefulness of the CDC’s ‘‘Heads Up: Concussion in Youth Sports’’ materials. The purpose of this survey was to establish the effectiveness of the Heads Up concussion in Youth Sports" academic materials. Coaches were asked if they thought concussions were serious in youth sports and if they had any items associated with concussions in the past. The coaches were then asked which academic information was the most useful to them, and if they planned on using the CDC'S "Heads Up: Concussion in Youth Sports" information in the future. A number of educational sources had been available to coaches relating on sport concussions. The sources were (posters, video tapes, fact sheets and web sites ,etc). The survey was reviewed for face and content validity, and was approved by Michigan State University's institutional review board. The Youth sport coaches consented to partake in this study by completing and returning the online survey. All answers were sent to the survey web site as anonymous details. The coaches were granted to skip any questions, and choose multiple answers for separate questions. The statistics were downloaded to Microsoft Excel for calculated responses.

Results Out of 1000 youth coaches, only 340 had completed the survey. Out of the 340 sports coaches, 115 coached boys teams, 108 coached girls teams, and 117 coached both teams. Four participants were eliminated form the survey because they only completed one question. Also, all of the coaches participating did not respond to all of the giving questions. All coaches specified having all the materials for the "Heads Up: Concussion in Youth Sports" for roughly 6 months before completing this survey. During past seasons coaches were aware of sports-related concussion