Study offers guidance on recovery time for concussions

A recent study involving NCAA student-athletes reveals that college football players may need at least seven days to recover from a concussion and that the greatest risk of re-injury occurs within seven days of sustaining the initial concussion.

Results from the NCAA Concussion Study, funded in part by the Association, were published in two separate articles that appeared in the November 19 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

The study gathered data on 2,905 college football players from 19 Division I, three Division II, and three Division III schools between 1999 and 2001. Results show that 92 percent of repeat concussions occurred within 10 days of the first and that 75 percent occurred within seven days.

Data also indicate that college football players with a history of sustaining three or more concussions are three times more likely to incur a concussion again than players with no history of concussion. Those players also are more likely to experience a slower recovery compared to players with no history of concussion.

According to Kevin M. Guskiewicz, associate professor of exercise and sport science at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and lead author of one of the JAMA articles, 30 percent of players with three or more concussions had symptoms lasting longer than a week as compared to only about 7 percent of those who reported no concussion history.

"Our studies do not suggest that football is an unsafe sport," Guskiewicz said. "However, they do underscore the importance of making certain that athletes are without any symptoms before they are allowed to return to participation."

Michael McCrea, director of the ProHealth Care Neuroscience Program at Waukesha Memorial Hospital in Waukesha, Wisconsin, and lead author of the second JAMA article, said the most severe symptoms and impairment happen within the first several hours after the injury.

McCrea also said that before this study, little evidence-based guidance existed for establishing when it was safe for players to resume same-day competition, on how long it took to recover or the risks of re-injury in the first several days after a concussion.

"This study calls into question the common practice of athletes returning to play within the first week after a concussion," he said. "It also demonstrates clearly that athletes should wait at least a week to avoid the risk of repeat injury."

St. Cloud State athletes take smoke-free stance

This fall, several St. Cloud State University student-athletes put some muscle behind a campaign to encourage a tobacco-free community. Six St. Cloud State student-athletes decked out in full uniform were featured on a poster with the message, "Our only addiction is the game -- be tobacco free!" More than 1,300 posters were printed and are being distributed throughout central Minnesota.

The poster was designed to encourage tobacco-free sports and youth recreation throughout the community. Posters were distributed at a recent St. Cloud State basketball game and the six featured student-athletes were on hand to meet recipients. In addition, the student-athletes also will be visiting community schools to distribute posters and speak to children.

Jeff Hegle, St. Cloud State swimming and diving coach and assistant life skills coordinator, said the response to the posters has been outstanding.

"We can't keep them around," he said.

-- Compiled by Leilana McKindra

Number crunching

Looking back

20 years ago

Here's what was happening within the NCAA in December 1983:

The NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Committee recommends that the field for the 1985 Division I Men's Basketball Championship be expanded from 53 to 64 teams. The proposed 64-team bracket includes eight first- and second-round sites with 16 teams in each of the four regional tournaments. A 64-team field would represent a 100 percent increase since 1978, the last year of the 32-team bracket.

* Joseph A. Delaney, a former all-American student-athlete in football and track at Northwestern State University who died trying to save three children from drowning, was announced as the recipient of the NCAA Award of Valor. This marks the first time for the award to be given posthumously. Delaney was a budding star with the Kansas City Chiefs at the time of his death. According to reports, Delaney was able to save one of the three children from drowning in a water hole left by construction work in a Monroe, Louisiana, park.

* NCAA Convention delegates prepare to consider a proposal requiring Division I institutions to sponsor eight sports for women by the 1987-88 academic year. Another proposal would require Division II members to sponsor six women's sports by the 1986-87 academic year.

* Attendance at college football games drops for the first time in nine years and only the second time since 1953. This is despite a slight increase in attendance at Division I-A games.

* The creation of a basketball rules committee for women will be considered at the Convention. The Special NCAA Committee on Publication of NCAA Women's Basketball Rules will ask the NCAA Council to create a 13-member women's rules committee that would determine rules, effective for the 1985-86 season. Currently, rules are maintained and administered by the U.S. Girls' and Women's Basketball Rules Committee under the auspices of the National Association for Girls and Women in Sport.