Answered Questions is a monthly resource for the Spanish language Disability Community that fills an information need. This month’s question is: Our child received a concussion while playing their favorite sport. We want to know how to best support them and their healing. What resources, research, and information are available to help us help our child with a sports-related concussion? This edition of Answered Questions includes items that discuss the work of the NIDILRR-funded Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Model System Centers; the relationship between certain postinjury measures and health-related quality of life in adolescent athletes with concussion; a program that may help people with TBI in building resiliency; high-tech helmets to prevent head injuries in football players; neuropsychological alterations and neuroradiological findings in people with post-traumatic concussion; and more. More about Answered Questions.
NIDILRR-Funded Projects:
- Over the years, NIDILRR has funded research on TBI (in English), including concussions (in English). Currently, there are 18 NIDILRR-funded centers within the TBI Model System (TBIMS) (in English) throughout the US that are working on TBI and related topics, such as improving the assessment and tracking of activity limitations in people with TBI, improving the resilience and social support in family members of people with TBI, and determining the breadth of outcomes after TBI that are affected by poor emotional self-awareness. The Centers also contribute data to the National TBI Model System Database (in English), which is the largest TBI longitudinal database in the world and includes data on preinjury, injury, acute care, rehabilitation, and outcomes at 1, 2, and every 5 years and up to 25 years postinjury.
- The Model Systems Knowledge Translation Center (MSKTC) (in English) (90DP0082) translates the peer-reviewed articles, reports, and other materials produced by the TBIMS grantees to ensure that TBI research is relevant and accessible to people with disabilities and their families, researchers, practitioners, clinicians, policy makers, and advocates. The Center develops research-based, user-friendly products (in English) on TBI to promote stakeholders’ awareness and use of TBIMS research for informed decision making. These informational products include slideshows, videos, infocomics, and hot topics modules and factsheets on TBI related topics in English and Spanish.
From the NARIC Collection:
- The article, The relationship between post-injury measures of cognition, balance, symptom reports and health-related quality-of-life in adolescent athletes with concussion (in English) (J77279), discusses a study that examined the relationship between traditional concussion assessments and health-related quality-of-life in teen athletes with concussion, and determined the association between deficits in health-related quality-of-life and time lost. The study found that health-related quality-of-life appears to play a role in time lost after a concussion and should be measured in combination with traditional concussion assessments.
Research In Focus:
- The article, A Brief Program May Help People Build Resilience After a Traumatic Brain Injury from the researchers at the Virginia Commonwealth University Traumatic Brain Injury Model System Center (in English), discusses a study that tested a new program called the Resilience and Adjustment Intervention (RAI), which is designed to help build resilience for people with TBI. The researchers found that the participants in the experimental group reported feeling more resilient, improving their communication and problem-solving skills, and feeling fewer emotional challenges and less stress at the end of the study than at the beginning. The authors noted that resilience may play a key role in helping people adjust to challenges after TBI.
International Research:
- While mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) has traditionally been considered to cause no significant brain damage, this idea is facing increasing scrutiny. The article, Neuropsychological alterations and neuroradiological findings in patients with post-traumatic concussion: Results of a pilot study (article in Spanish and abstract in English) (I245222), discusses a study to demonstrate the presence of early cognitive alterations in a series of patients with mTBI and to link these findings to different markers of brain damage. Results from the pilot study suggest that early cognitive alterations and structural brain lesions affect a considerable percentage of people with post-concussion syndrome following mTBI.
NARIC Publications:
- Concussions due to head trauma related to sports have been in the news in recent years. This edition of reSearch provides a snapshot of over 20 years of research on sports-related concussion and presents a general overview of this type of concussion. It includes the abstracts of articles on different topics related to sports-related concussion in the following databases: NARIC’s REHABDATA, National Guideline Clearinghouse, Cochrane Collaborative, and PubMed.
- NARIC’s Librarian’s Picks on TBI lists agencies and organizations that can help people with concussion and TBI and their families on the road to recovery. The agencies and organizations provide information and support, rehabilitation, therapy, and more. NARIC also provides a Librarian’s Picks on Assistive Technology that lists organizations that can help people with concussion and TBI find the device, product, or manufacturer that can help them make life easier on a daily basis. To find more organizations that could help people with concussion and their families, visit NARIC’s Librarian’s Picks.
Technology:
- The article, Football is back. And so are concussions. In Florida, high-tech helmets are scarce from the Orlando Sentinel (in English), discusses how high-tech helmets are beginning to appear in university football teams. The article also discusses technology within new helmets designed to prevent concussions and brain injuries by alerting trainers and other team personnel when and how hard a player has been hit in the head. However, schools in Florida have said no to this technology as they feel that there is not enough evidence to support the new technology for football helmets.
Resources:
- TeensHealth (in English) has a factsheet on sports and concussion for teens that discusses how concussions occur, how teens can prevent a sports concussion, what to do if they have a head injury while playing a sport, the signs of a concussion, when can teen athletes return to play after a concussion, and more.
- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has published a factsheet for Parents of Children Participating in Youth Sports that provides information on concussion and related topics as part of the HEADS UP campaign (in English) to reduce youth concussions. Topics include: how to keep children safe, how to identify a possible concussion, what to do if a parent thinks their child or teen has a possible concussion, and more.
- Brainline, a service of WETA, has published an article, Attention: Concussion in high school sports (A factsheet for athletes), that describes concussions, the signs and symptoms of concussions, what to do if you have a concussion, and more.
Courses:
- The Center on Brain Injury Research and Training (CBIRT) (in English) has published In the Classroom: Supporting Students with TBI (in English), a comprehensive web-based educational and training resource for teachers. This resource includes interactive learning modules that offer specific strategies and techniques for managing TBI-related cognitive, social, and behavioral issues in a school setting. It includes printable forms, resource links, and practical tools for use in the classroom. CBIRT also provides concussion-related information and resources (in English) for everyone, including administrators, athletes, parents, coaches, teachers, referees and other education and sports professionals.
Further Research:
REHABDATA:
PubMed:
International:
About Answered Questions
Each month, we look through the searches on our blog and through the information requests made by our patrons who speak Spanish and pick a topic that fills the largest need. Each resource mentioned above is associated with this month’s information need. We search the various Spanish language news sources and feeds throughout the month to bring you these articles. With the exception of the NIDILRR Projects, From the NARIC Collection, and Further Investigation, all the linked articles and resources are in Spanish – any that are in English will be clearly marked.
Collection Spotlight from the National Rehabilitation Information Center 