By Staff Reports
(Hawaii)– From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.
A study by the Institute of Medicine says many athletes and coaches don’t report a possible concussion, even though this raises the risk of re-injury and impedes treatment. The study calls this a “culture of resistance’’ against reporting.
Robert Graham of the George Washington University in Washington, D.C., chaired the IOM panel that wrote the report, which looked at data on players from 5 to 21 years old. He’d like to see a change that looks like this:
“When a child in this age range suffers a concussion, people say, `That’s a significant event. We’re going to take care of you. You’re not going to go back to competition – you’re not going to go back to school – until we’re sure that you have recovered.”
The study was supported by HHS agencies.
Learn more at healthfinder.gov.
HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I’m Ira Dreyfuss.