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As more Arizona parents become better educated on concussions, more are deciding to say no the sport that arguably creates the greatest risk for traumatic head injuries, high school football.
In the Barrow Neurological Institute’s most recent survey, the number of parents allowing their children to play football decreased from 68% in 2016 to 47% in 2020, according to Dr. Javier Cardenas, the director of Barrow Concussion and Brain Injury Center at Barrow Neurological Institute.
The Barrow Neurological Institute, located in north Phoenix, marked its 10-year anniversary of the nation’s first mandatory concussion education for student-athletes on Tuesday.
Barrow, the Arizona Interscholastic Association and the Arizona Cardinals collaborated to create the Barrow Brainbook, which has educated over one million high school athletes in multiple sports since its creation.
“Today, mental health, a brain based condition, is the most prominent issue for our athletes,” Cardenas said during a Wednesday press conference. “Arizona has been, and will continue to be, the leader in concussion initiatives, nationally and internationally.”
Part of the decreasing number of parents allowing their children to play football could be because of misconceptions about concussions, which gained more attention after reports of nuerous former NFL players suffering brain disorders connected to injuries later in life.
“The biggest misconception that I hear about concussion is that it’s not treatable, and that you need to go to a dark room and rest and stay there forever. That’s not the case,” Cardenas said. “In fact, there are many active treatments, most of them non-medicine, that can help people recover, whether that is vestibular therapy for balance, occupational therapy for vision … All of these are opportunities for treatment.”
Improved prevention measures also are a key, he said.
Penalties now are being enforced on head-to-head contact plays, such as targeting and blindside blocks, that cause the most concussions. In addition, football players wear equipment that better prevents head injuries.
“I think the one thing that [NFL players] have on our side is technology,” said Cardinals wide receiver Christian Kirk, a Saguaro High School product, who participated in Wednesday press conference. “The technology that we have in our helmets and all of our equipment to help keep us safe, as well as help eliminate some of those traumatic hits and injuries that have been taken in the past.”
However, the effects of this new technology isn’t just felt at the professional level.
“In fact, at the NFL level, nearly every single athlete is in the highest performing helmet. Why does that matter? That matters because that technology trickles down to our college athletes and, most importantly, our young athletes,” Cardenas said.
While at Saguaro, Kirk was a member of the group that participated in the Barrow Neurological Institute’s first collaboration and initiation of the Barrow Brainbook program. Going through the program allowed him to recognize the symptoms of a concussion.
If athletes suffer a head injury, the Barrow Brainbook requires them to complete an education course on concussions and pass a formal test to participate in Arizona high school sports. So far, over 300,000 high school athletes have completed these tests and more than 600,000 have finished the Barrow Neurological Institute’s telemedicine concussion treatment program.
The Barrow Brainbook’s outreach continues to grow after Cardenas stated that a Spanish version has just been released.
“This Spanish language Brainbook will allow us to better serve our Latino community in Arizona, as well as improve accessibility for all Spanish speaking student-athletes,” Cardenas said.
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