An investigation into rugby union players' knowledge and understanding of concussion

Concussion amongst rugby union players’ is one of the highest and most common injuries that has been happening in the modern game. However, recently, previous rugby players have come forward with the physical effect that concussion has had on them from their early playing days, reducing their quality of like with everlasting effects. This means the uncertainty of players knowledge and understanding was at large, and wondering whether if players did know this information, would they take encountering a concussion more seriously.

Therefore, this research study aims to investigate current rugby union players’ knowledge and understanding of concussion. The sample size consisted of 62 participants, including both males and females from both a university and a club setting, to get a comparison on their current knowledge. This research used a mixed methods approach by carrying out semi structured interviews and questionnaires to collect data. A process of coding a thematic analysis revealed key themes such as education players have had regarding concussion, what they believed were common signs and symptoms of concussion and their current knowledge to returning to play.

The findings from this research indicated that males and females both from a university and a club setting had a large gap of knowledge regarding concussion including 62 responses in the questionnaires believed that headguards, mouth guards or shoulder pads prevent concussion. Other gaps included identifying incorrect signs and symptoms of concussion, such as neck pain, knocked out and ear discharge, as well as not having knowledge regarding the correct return to play protocol. There were also 4 participants who were unsure or did not believe players needed to be removed from play after sustaining a concussion. This study has shown the need to implement more concussion prevention strategies for both male and female’s players that can be disturbed to captains within a team as well as different settings such as club and university.