The Prevalence of Secondary School Sport Safety Policies within State Athletic Associations and Legislation

Abstract

Purpose: The location of secondary school health and safety policies impacts how they are implemented by the sports medicine team and stakeholders. Yet, a comprehensive list of each state’s policy locations has not been established. The purpose of this study was to describe where secondary school health and safety policies were located at the state level within the United States. Method: Emergency related health and safety policies were designated as either being located in the state high school athletics association (SHSAA), state legislation (LEGIS), or in both SHSAA and LEGIS (BOTH). Designation was determined by two researchers who independently reviewed each individual policy. Frequencies were tabulated for the leading causes of catastrophic injury (exertional heat stroke (EHS), traumatic head injuries (THI), sudden cardiac arrest (SCA), and emergency preparedness (EP)) for the distribution of policies emanating from SHSSA, LEGIS or BOTH. Prevalence ratios (PRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated between the policies categories and location. Results: Most (99.35%) EHS and EP (83.02%) policies were found in SHSAA. Whereas the majority (79.70%) of SCA policies were found in LEGIS. Traumatic head injuries were most frequently observed in SHSAA, however, had the greatest distribution across all three categories (SHSAA=45.31%, LEGIS=25.52%, BOTH = 29.16%). The category that most frequently found policies in BOTH was THI (THI= 29.16%, all others =2.25%; PR=12.96; 95% CI=7.81, 21.53). Conclusions: Emergency related health and safety policies for secondary school sports are commonly found in SHSAA. TBI and SCA are also found in LEGIS. This demonstrates great variability of policy locations.