History, Knowledge, and Education of Sport-Related Concussion Among College Athletes in Japan.

Context: Few authors have investigated sport-related concussion (SRC) awareness and knowledge among athletes in Japan. Sport-related concussion research is scarce among Asian compared with North American and European cohorts.

Objective: To examine previous SRC history, level of SRC knowledge, and previous exposure to SRC education among collegiate athletes in Japan by the level of contact and access to medical staff.

Question Format Matters: Do Athletes Really Know the Signs and Symptoms of a Sport-Related Concussion?

Authors of previous studies commonly used a multiselect checklist method to assess an athlete's ability to recognize true sport-related concussion (SRC) signs and symptoms (S&S) among incorrect distractor options. However, this may overinflate the evaluation of participants' knowledge because the multiselect method does not test athletes' ability to retrieve knowledge from their long-term memory. To examine this hypothesis, we sent an online survey to registered members of the Japan Lacrosse Association (n = 8530) to assess differences in reported SRC S&S by open-ended-question and multiselect formats.