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Australian Football League concussion guidelines: what do community players think?

BACKGROUND: Preventing concussion in sport is a global challenge. To assess community-level adult male Australian Football players’ views on following the Australian Football League's (AFL) concussion guidelines. METHODS: 3 focus groups, each comprising 6 players from 1 regional league, were co...

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Autores principales: White, Peta E, Donaldson, Alex, Sullivan, S John, Newton, Joshua, Finch, Caroline F
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BMJ Publishing Group 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5566260/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28890801
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjsem-2016-000169
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author White, Peta E
Donaldson, Alex
Sullivan, S John
Newton, Joshua
Finch, Caroline F
author_facet White, Peta E
Donaldson, Alex
Sullivan, S John
Newton, Joshua
Finch, Caroline F
author_sort White, Peta E
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Preventing concussion in sport is a global challenge. To assess community-level adult male Australian Football players’ views on following the Australian Football League's (AFL) concussion guidelines. METHODS: 3 focus groups, each comprising 6 players from 1 regional league, were conducted until saturation of issues raised. Discussions followed a semistructured script and were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Thematic analysis was conducted by 2 coders independently. RESULTS: Identified advantages of the guidelines included highlighting the seriousness of concussion; changing the culture around playing with concussion and shifting return-to-play decision responsibility from players to others. Disadvantages included players being removed from play unnecessarily; removal of players’ rights to decide if they are fit to play and players changing their behaviours to avoid being removed from play. Identified facilitators to guideline use included local league enforcement; broad information dissemination and impartial medically trained staff to assess concussion. Identified barriers to guideline use included players’ desire to play at all costs; external pressure that encouraged players to return to play prematurely; and inconvenience and cost. CONCLUSIONS: Players generally understand that the AFL concussion guidelines protect their long-term welfare. However, their desire to play at all costs and help their team win is a common barrier to reporting concussion and adhering to guidelines. Leagues should take a lead role by mandating and enforcing the use of the guidelines and educating coaches, game day medical providers and players. The return-to-play component of the guidelines is complex and needs further consideration in the context of community sport.
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spelling pubmed-55662602017-09-08 Australian Football League concussion guidelines: what do community players think? White, Peta E Donaldson, Alex Sullivan, S John Newton, Joshua Finch, Caroline F BMJ Open Sport Exerc Med Research BACKGROUND: Preventing concussion in sport is a global challenge. To assess community-level adult male Australian Football players’ views on following the Australian Football League's (AFL) concussion guidelines. METHODS: 3 focus groups, each comprising 6 players from 1 regional league, were conducted until saturation of issues raised. Discussions followed a semistructured script and were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Thematic analysis was conducted by 2 coders independently. RESULTS: Identified advantages of the guidelines included highlighting the seriousness of concussion; changing the culture around playing with concussion and shifting return-to-play decision responsibility from players to others. Disadvantages included players being removed from play unnecessarily; removal of players’ rights to decide if they are fit to play and players changing their behaviours to avoid being removed from play. Identified facilitators to guideline use included local league enforcement; broad information dissemination and impartial medically trained staff to assess concussion. Identified barriers to guideline use included players’ desire to play at all costs; external pressure that encouraged players to return to play prematurely; and inconvenience and cost. CONCLUSIONS: Players generally understand that the AFL concussion guidelines protect their long-term welfare. However, their desire to play at all costs and help their team win is a common barrier to reporting concussion and adhering to guidelines. Leagues should take a lead role by mandating and enforcing the use of the guidelines and educating coaches, game day medical providers and players. The return-to-play component of the guidelines is complex and needs further consideration in the context of community sport. BMJ Publishing Group 2016-11-28 /pmc/articles/PMC5566260/ /pubmed/28890801 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjsem-2016-000169 Text en Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/ This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
spellingShingle Research
White, Peta E
Donaldson, Alex
Sullivan, S John
Newton, Joshua
Finch, Caroline F
Australian Football League concussion guidelines: what do community players think?
title Australian Football League concussion guidelines: what do community players think?
title_full Australian Football League concussion guidelines: what do community players think?
title_fullStr Australian Football League concussion guidelines: what do community players think?
title_full_unstemmed Australian Football League concussion guidelines: what do community players think?
title_short Australian Football League concussion guidelines: what do community players think?
title_sort australian football league concussion guidelines: what do community players think?
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5566260/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28890801
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjsem-2016-000169
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