Abstract
BackgroundConnecticut (CT) passed its original sport-related concussion (SRC) law (PA 10-62) in 2010. The law requires that a health-care professional evaluate high school athletes with concussion symptoms. The purpose of this study was to evaluate two level 1 Trauma Center Emergency Department (ED) records for SRC before and after the Connecticut Public Act (CT PA) 10-62 to determine if the law had an effect on the presentation to the ED of SRCs.MethodsA retrospective analysis of two level 1 Trauma Center Emergency Departments database was performed. Monthly data on SRCs treated in the study EDs from July 2003 through June 2012 were collected and analyzed using the autoregressive integrated moving average model. The number of SRCs in the youth (under age 14 years), high school (age 14 to 18 years), and adult (age >18 years) populations prior to CT PA 10-62 was compared to the number of SRCs post implementation of CT PA 10-62 for each academic school year, fall sports season, and summertime.ResultsMonthly SRCs in high school students treated in the study EDs increased from 2.5 cases to 5.9 cases between pre and post implementation of CT PA 10-62 (p < 0.001). Statistical modeling revealed that implementation of CT PA 10-62 was associated with significantly increased SRCs treated in the study EDs and that the increase was limited to the high school students in the fall season and during the school year.ConclusionsThere has been a marked increase in the frequency of SRCs treated in the emergency departments in the high school population in Connecticut after the implementation of the sport-related concussion law. The results suggest that the sport-related concussion law in Connecticut is effective in improving the evaluation and detection of SRCs in high school students.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40621-015-0034-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
Connecticut (CT) passed its original sport-related concussion (SRC) law (PA 10-62) in 2010
The number of SRCs seen in the high school population for the first 96 months immediately prior to Connecticut Public Act (CT PA) 10-62 was n = 238, for the 36 months after CT PA 10-62 n = 213 SRCs (Table 1)
The number of SRCs in all of the years prior to CT PA 10-62 compared to the years post CT PA 10-62 during the summer months for high school, youth, or adults was not significantly different for any of the groups
Summary
Connecticut (CT) passed its original sport-related concussion (SRC) law (PA 10-62) in 2010. As of 2014, all states have passed laws concerning concussions in high school and youth sports (Center for Disease Control and Prevention 2013; National Conference of State Legislatures 2014). These laws require the removal of athletes from play when concussion is suspected, and subsequent evaluated by a licensed medical professional (Tomei et al 2012). The Connecticut Public Act (CT PA) 10-62 An Act Concerning Student Athletes and Concussions went into effect on July 1, 2010 (Anonymous 2010) This law requires that ‘a student athlete be removed from play or other kinds of physical exertion when showing signs of a concussion, and are not permitted to resume participation without written clearance from a licensed medical professional’.
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