New Article: Concussion Awareness Day at HealthStreet

Inaugural Concussion Awareness Day at HealthStreet

By Nicki Karimipour

The Athlete Brain Team held their first Concussion Awareness Day this past Saturday, August 25 from 12 p.m. until 2 p.m. The location for the event was held at HealthStreet, a “community-based effort that works every day to reduce disparities in healthcare and research by linking the medically underserved to medical and social services,” according to their website.

Activities during Concussion Awareness Day at HealthStreet

In addition to directing Alachua County residents to medical and social service resources, HealthStreet also links the public with research opportunities like clinical trials. Led by Dr. Linda Cottler, HealthStreet had its grand opening in November of 2011 at the University of Florida’s East Campus, located on Waldo Road. Dr. Cottler, a professor and founding chair of the Department of Epidemiology, brings with her years of experience with community-based health models. Dr. Cottler began the model by implementing it first at Washington University in St. Louis. The basis for this model consists of concept called a “Sentinel Network,” where various sites around the country share the common goal of understanding health concerns of underrepresented groups. Another goal of the HealthStreet related model is to build a level of trust between the public and the research community. This is accomplished by recruiting potential research participants from places such as barbershops, beauty shops, parks, shelters, bus stops, community agencies, churches, neighborhood associations, health care facilities, sports venues, grocery stores, laundromats, nail salons, fitness centers, colleges, gas stations, check cashing venues, health fairs.

Guest Speaker Janie Cournoyer

“The UF College of Public Health and Health Professionals has an award called ‘Bridging the Gap,’ which seeks to bridge the gap between public health and health professions,” said Noni Graham, Project Manager at HealthStreet. “We had some of students from the Epidemiology Department and some students from Clinical and Health Psychology apply. They won the award, and we now have two students from Epidemiology and two students from Clinical and Health Psychology who are in charge of this initiative and have recruited a lot of student volunteers—undergraduate and graduate students—because this is a research interest. Due to the fact that sports are such a big topic of interest anywhere, especially at the collegiate level, they just want to raise awareness in the community. It’s important to keep people informed, so that they can recognize the signs and symptoms and they know what to do and not to do. We want people to make educated choices when they are participating in sports, and inform their families as well.”

The inaugural Concussion Awareness Day featured games, giveaways, food, and education outreach. This event has activities geared toward every age group, but especially to youth who may be participating in sports or other athletic endeavors.

“We really need to increase knowledge on the parents’ behalf, because they are in the best position to

Concussion Goggles Demonstration at Concussion Awareness Day

recognize the symptoms in their kids, so having this Concussion Awareness Day exist as a regular event would gradually educate the public about these important topics,” said Dr. Russell Bauer, a professor in the Department of Clinical and Health Psychology.

There has been an interested in continuing Concussion Awareness Day events at the HealthStreet location, set to occur on a monthly basis. These events are aimed at raising awareness about sports related concussions, and educating the public by providing them with more information in an interactive way.

HealthStreet is located at 2124 NE Waldo Road, Suite 1200. It is accessible via RTS bus routes 24 and 25. For more information, please call 352-294-4880.

Announcements will be made on the Athlete Brain website about the days and times of the next Concussion Awareness Day. Volunteer opportunities are available. If interested, please email athletebrain@gmail.com.

New Article about Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy!

Dangerous Outcomes: Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy

by Celeste Rousseau

Former Cincinnati Bengals receiver Chris Henry died at the prime age of 26. Henry was found unconscious in the middle of the road after falling off a truck bed, the result of what was initially thought to be the unfortunate outcome of a quarrel with his fiancée; however, this event had a more elusive killer: his deteriorating brain(3).

Autopsy revealed that his brain had symptoms of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), the onset of which is associated with activities involving repetitive head trauma, particularly football and boxing. Henry’s situation is not an anomaly in football: according to a recent study done by a group at the Boston University School of Medicine, 321 professional football players died between February 2008 and June 2010, and of the 12 who had their brains autopsied, all showed signs of CTE(1).

Before concerned parents begin to remove their children from the playing fields, the historical and biological implications must be investigated to decipher if America’s most beloved sports are in fact silent killers.

The aforementioned article elucidates the history of the disease, stating that the disease’s origin can be traced back to 1928. During that year, a New Jersey physician named Harrison Martland observed a group of boxers, finding that nearly 1 in 2 long-term boxers had peculiar defects. The witnessed symptoms were manifested in multiple areas, internally and externally, leading to a state that was termed “punch-drunk” due to the boxer’s disordered tendencies. Because of its initial link to boxing, the disorder was named dementia pugilistica– ‘pugilist’ being a Latin synonym for ‘boxer.’ The name was later changed to CTE due to the fact that these unique physical symptoms were no longer present solely in boxers(1). This historical background begs the question: what is CTE, and how is it different from other neurodegenerative diseases?

Further research reveals that CTE is a disease that leads to an overall decrease in brain mass due to a shrinking of an array of structures– including the executive function controlling frontal lobe, auditory controlling temporal cortex, and the motor function commanding parietal cortex. There is also a diminishing of the corpus callosum, a collection of nerves that connect the left and right portions of the brain and are essential in coordination, and the formation of a cavum septum pellucida, which is essentially an opening of a membrane. Certain portions of the brain expand in size, including the lateral and third ventricles that contain cerebrospinal fluid and are crucial in protecting and removing waste products from the brain(2). As of present, the data is daunting, yet inconclusive.

Because this disease seems to occur years after injury, multiple factors have to be accounted for before making a statement about CTE and its affiliation with sports-related injury. The nature and number of impacts required to trigger CTE is unclear; a series of minor hits, a few concussions over an extended period of time, or one major hit are all possible mechanisms for inducing neuropathology. The genetic predispositions for the disease that one could possess is also unknown– one person may receive the same amount of concussive hits as another player, yet only one of them will have the genetic makeup to trigger CTE’s onset. Furthermore, one’s age upon receiving the impact could alter the disease’s onset and development. Other factors including drug use could also be a major player in establishing CTE, which could mean that this disease may occur outside contact-sport athletes(1).

Moreover, this disease does not have a standardized diagnostic system, and much of the symptoms for this disease coincide with other neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease1. As of now, the message that can be taken from this information is that blows to the head, whether concussive or minor, are not beneficial to one’s health; however, it is unclear as to how detrimental these hits are, and what sorts of health issues they can cause years after the hit.

America’s favorite sports can still be played, but more consideration should be taken when protecting the players. There are suggestions to decrease the number of complete contact practices and to increase the use of protective headgear in order to curb the number of injured players and potentially mitigate the effects of heads trauma(1).

With the recent research on sport related brain injuries and the coinciding change in regulation in athletic programs, particularly in football, it will be interesting to see if the brutality in athletics that fans clamor over will diminish, and if so, will the public still feel the same about the sport? However, only time and increased medical and clinical research will yield the results needed to make such an assessment.

1. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2995699/?tool=pubmed
2. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2945234/?tool=pubmed
3. http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=5333971

Concussion Awareness Day Coverage

Check out this article from the Gainesville Guardian covering our upcoming Concussion Awareness event at HealthStreet!

Gainesville Guardian: UF Plans Event to Tackle Concussions

Concussion Awareness Event at HealthStreet

HealthStreet, Gainesville FL
August 25th, 12pm-2pm

New Article! Social Media and Concussions

Keep it social: Federal agencies utilize social media to raise concussion awareness

By Nicki Karimipour

The advent of readily available online medical and health information has made it easier than ever to self-diagnose and check symptoms, seek treatment or to know when to contact an emergency room. In recent years, the efforts of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institute of Health (NIH) to combat youth concussions have taken on a social media role.

In this day and age, government, federal agencies and hospitals utilize social media to cast a broader net—in particular, to gain recognition from young people, who are active users of social media in this country. With options to subscribe to their updates or “follow” them, young people have the unique opportunity to become more educated about health and medical topics to which they may not have otherwise been exposed.
However, “the younger audience is also among the healthiest groups, so they have less of a perceived interest and need in these kinds of health messages,” said Lee Aase, Director of the Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media. “But there are different kinds of messages that resonate with them, more about prevention. But in many cases with younger people, they feel healthy and don’t feel as much of a need for health because they have it.”
This is especially important for youth, who are at a greater risk for sustaining concussions while engaging in sports or leisure activities.

As for reaching the older set, who may not be as Internet or computer savvy?
“YouTube is helpful because you aren’t required to have an account, whereas Facebook and Twitter require accounts,” Aase said. “With YouTube, you just need to be able to search on the Web. Even though a lot of the older population is on Facebook as well, a media platform where no membership is required, such as blogs and YouTube, is a way to reach them.”
The NIH uses social media to disseminate messages about different topics of public health interest. They maintain RSS feeds, NIH Radio, Twitter, YouTube and Facebook accounts. NIH’s National Library of Medicine maintains a Twitter page where it provides frequent health and medically related updates, in addition to MedLine Plus, an informative site covering a wide array of disease and health topics.

“Using YouTube enables us to share a lot more in depth information than is available in other platforms and in traditional media,” said Aase, when asked about the ways in which the Mayo Clinic is harnessing the power of social media to disseminate messages to the public. “That is one of the core ways of providing good, trustworthy content.”
The target audience for these messages can vary.
“It’s really a self-selected kind of audience–people who have a medical need or concern, people with serious or chronic conditions who are looking for information that will be relevant to them.”
Maintaining presence along a broad range of platforms is important, as well.
“The Mayo Clinic uses Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, blogs—those are the core,” said Aase. “Then we have done some things with Pinterest. Any time there gets to be about 10 million users of a platform, that becomes a platform we should probably pay attention to.”

The CDC, a federal agency under the Department of Health and Human Services, operates quite a few social media accounts aimed at educating the public and getting the word out about various topics. Their concussion related Facebook page is called “CDC Heads Up – Brain Injury Awareness.” A program of the CDC Injury Center, the page maintains a social media presence by disseminating information about concussions to the users who have “Liked” their page and subscribed to timely updates.
“The goal of CDC’s Heads Up Facebook page is to raise awareness about better prevention, recognition and response to brain injury,” said Graham Kirkland of the CDC. “We have an engaged community of brain injury survivors, family members and caregivers. They help each other with advice and give positive feedback to Heads Up promotions.”

More specifically, the Heads Up Facebook page has introduced new methods with which to engage young users of social media. Namely, “Trivia Tuesday” has been introduced as of July 2. Trivia Tuesday consists of a question posed to Facebook users who have subscribed to and “Liked” the page.
“The Heads Up Film Festival encourages video storytelling of experiences, successes, challenges, goals, memories and the hopes that motivate people,” said Kirkland in regards to the goals of the interactivity-based features of Trivia Tuesday, live chats and the festival. “The film festival is non-competitive and open to anyone who cares about brain injury. This year the film festival received a variety of videos – even a song! Heads Up also hosted a live chat via Twitter with professional athletes and experts to raise awareness about brain injury.”

In addition, Heads Up periodically hosts live chat sessions with various experts and athletes. In the past, there have been live chats with former NFL player Sean Morey, former professional wrestler and football player turned concussion advocate Chris Nowinski, Seattle Seahawks Team Physician Dr. Stan Herring, Director of CDC’s Division of Injury Response Dr. Richard Hunt, among others.

As for the various features on the page, Kirkland views the main page as “a supportive community for posting stories and updates about brain injury. The Materials page offers downloadable print materials to caregivers, coaches and other professionals. Podcasts and E-cards pages are for Heads Up multimedia and educational materials. The Events page is for activities like the Heads Up Film Festival.”

Earlier this spring, the page had a call for user-generated submissions for their “Heads Up Film Festival – Give Brain Injury a Voice.” Users had the opportunity to interact with each other and the agency as a whole by creating and uploading videos to YouTube and identifying them with the tag “HeadsUpFilmFestival.” Many users revealed their very personal stories and experiences with concussions or head injuries. Sharing their stories is just an added bonus—an important feature of social media is that it allows for a synchronous, two-way communication and greater interactivity than traditional media forms can offer.

According to the CDC’s Social Media Toolkit, the agency seeks to provide the public with “science-based” information via social media outlets. Delivering messages that are “accurate, consistent, and science-based” to social media users is an important aspect of using new media forms to reach a broader base of people. Encouraging participation is another tenet of their social media toolkit. Integration of features like trivia, videos, live chats, and “tailored” communications aid as a call for action and raising awareness.

Undoubtedly, the page has helped people who are suffering from concussions or traumatic brain injuries.

“The Heads Up Facebook page is a supportive community for sharing stories with other brain injury survivors, family members and caregivers,” said Kirkland. “It connects people with educational resources and local groups, such as the Brain Injury Association of America (BIAA).”

Aase echoed these sentiments, saying that hospitals can use social media tools “to educate patients, listen to patients, and help providers connect with each other in order to provide helpful information to encourage collaboration.”

Looking to governmental agencies as leaders in research and prevention, citizens may look to these groups to provide information and “best practice” methods in aspects such as education, prevention, treatment and risk reduction.

For more information, visit www.facebook.com/cdcheadsup.
Sources consulted:
http://www.cdc.gov/

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/

Nicki Karimipour is a graduate student at the University of Florida in the College of Journalism and Communications. Her research focuses on media depictions of sport related concussions and traumatic brain injuries.

 

 

New Interview! Clinical Neuropsychologist

Interview with Clinical Neuropsychologist, Duane Dede, PhD on Sports-Related Concussion

Many different health professionals are involved in the diagnosis and management of sports concussion and navigating their different roles can be confusing.  An important field  in concussion  research and assessment is neuropsychology because of its unique examination of the relationship between brain injury and behavior.  Dr. Duane Dede, a clinical neuropsychologist, is an associate professor of clinical and health psychology at the University of Florida and co-director of the university’s Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Clinic. Read more . . .