Sports fans, wagering, and concussion knowledge: implications for injury nondisclosure

Karen A. Sullivan; Kannan Singaravelu Jaganathan; Sally Kinmond

doi:10.1071/IB23008

RESEARCH ARTICLE (Open Access)

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Sports fans, wagering, and concussion knowledge: implications for injury nondisclosure

Karen A. Sullivan

^A ^B ^* , Kannan Singaravelu Jaganathan ^A and Sally Kinmond ^A

+ Author Affiliations

- Author Affiliations

^A School of Psychology and Counselling, Faculty of Health, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia

^B Australian Centre for Health Law Research, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia

^* Correspondence to: karen.sullivan@qut.edu.au

Brain Impairment 24(1) 103-113 https://doi.org/10.1017/BrImp.2022.2

Submitted: 3 September 2021 Accepted: 10 January 2022 Published: 19 April 2022

© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Australasian Society for the Study of Brain Impairment. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Objective:

Athletes perceive sports fans as a source of concussion nondisclosure pressure. Sports fans are exposed to injury depictions from the media that could lead them to underestimate its seriousness. This study examined the concussion knowledge of non-sports fans, sports fans, and wagering sports fans, as knowledge is a modifiable factor that can influence injury disclosure.

Setting and participants:

A convenience sample of 443 Australian adults completed an online survey.

Design:

Cross-sectional.

Main measures:

Self-rated and actual concussion knowledge (the Rosenbaum Concussion Knowledge and Attitudes Survey; RoCKAS).

Results:

There was no significant difference in the concussion knowledge of self-identified sports (n = 157) and non-sports (n = 286) fans; but sports fans rated their knowledge as significantly higher than non-sports fans (p < .05). Wagering sports fans (n = 24) had significantly less concussion knowledge than non-wagering sports fans (η² = .03, small effect).

Discussion:

Athletes who feel nondisclosure pressure from sports fans may be influenced by people with incomplete concussion knowledge, particularly wagering sports fans. Sports fans over-estimated their knowledge, and this could contribute to the nondisclosure pressure felt by athletes. Programmes to increase injury disclosure by athletes should take these factors into consideration.

Keywords: Traumatic brain injury, sports, athletes, injury prevention, wagering.

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