Teen Athletes Wary of Reporting Concussions: Headaches, Dizziness Don't Stop Most From Playing, Study Reveals

About half of teenage athletes wouldn't notify their coach of concussion symptoms, according to a new study from the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, which also found that half of high school football players would continue playing despite a headache resulting from a head injury sustained on the field.

Experts aim to use the results of this study, slated for presentation on May 6 at the annual meeting of the Pediatric Academic Societies in Washington, DC, to incite policies that address the issue of concussions in young athletes.

"We aren't yet at the point where we can make specific policy recommendations for sports teams, but this study raises concerns that young athletes may not report symptoms of concussions," said Dr. Brit Anderson who is the study's lead author and emergency medicine fellow at Cincinnati Children's Hospital.

"Other approaches, such as an increased use of sideline screening by coaches or athletic trainers, might be needed to identify injured athletes."

For the new study, researchers surveyed 120 high school football players and found that 30 of them suffered a concussion, while only 82 said they received concussion education prior to their injury.

Headaches, dizziness, difficulty with memory, difficulty concentrating, and sensitivity to light and sound were all identified by the majority of subjects to be concussion symptoms. And more than 90 percent acknowledged they were at risk for serious injury if they went back on the field too soon.

However, while awareness appeared to be prevalent among the study participants, 53 percent still said that they would "always or sometimes continue to play with a headache sustained from an injury," while 54 percent said they would "always or sometimes report symptoms of a concussion to their coach."

But Anderson says that despite the findings from this most recent study, more research is needed on the issue of concussions among young athletes.

"Further study on concussion education in adolescent athletes and on ways to identify high school athletes who have sustained a concussion would be useful," Anderson said.

Concussions account for about 8.9 percent of all high school athletic injuries, Medical Xpress reports. Up to 3.8 million concussions resulting from recreational- or sports-related activity are estimated to occur in the United States each year.