In the TBI Act Reauthorization of 2000, CDC has been given expanded authorization for an education and awareness campaign. The campaign should consider:

• A recent Harris poll, commissioned by the Brain Injury Association, revealed that the American public greatly underestimates the magnitude and importance of TBI (www.biausa.org/harrispollresults.htm. Accessed January 24, 2001).

• All educational efforts should strive to use standard terminology to increase understanding and improve communication about TBI.

Raising awareness in the medical and TBI communities

• The campaign should educate the medical and TBI communities that so-called "mild" TBI can result in serious, long-term deficits. A relatively large number of children have problems after mild TBI.

• A group of neuropsychologists, now at the University of Pittsburgh, has developed a computer-based sports sideline screening for symptoms of concussion. The National Football League (NFL) first used the screening, and now some college and high school sports use it, which has generated a lot of attention from parents.

• Parents and caregivers also need to better understand what they can expect after a child has a TBI, especially a less severe TBI.

• Cultural sensitivity is critical.
  

• Efforts to develop materials that increase awareness should begin with focus groups to understand children's and families' perspectives and the language that is meaningful to them.
  

• Educational efforts should be sensitive to the different information needs of parents of children whose disability resulted from a sudden change (i.e., TBI) and of parents of children with developmental disability. An education campaign should try to ensure that the information about possible outcomes of TBI in children does not result in negative self-fulfilling prophecies. For example, children with mild-to-moderate TBI may have cognitive deficits, but they are still capable of learning.

Dissemination

CDC should distribute educational materials as widely as possible, including through the HRSA Maternal and Child Health Bureau Clearinghouse, which distributes a wide range of materials on children’s health.

CDC Research Efforts

Meeting participants offered the following additional suggestions for steps the CDC should take to improve knowledge about TBI outcomes in children.

• Continue to collect data while ensuring more widespread dissemination.

CDC should continue to increase awareness of the TBI problem by collecting and sharing data about the incidence and prevalence of TBI and TBI-related disability. Information should be in a form that can be distributed by health professionals to people with TBI and their families. For example, CDC should publish more brochures like the concussion brochure (Facts about Concussion and Brain Injury, Accessed January 24, 2001).

• Support, promote and conduct additional research.

CDC should make its surveillance data sets more widely and readily available to other researchers and professionals, including via the Internet.

CDC needs to identify research gaps and issue requests for proposals (RFPs) to address those gaps. Future CDC studies should document:

• the disproportionately low funding for TBI compared with the burden of TBI

• poor coverage of services by insurance companies

• the percentage of children with TBI receiving services and the percentage not receiving them

• the need for appropriate educational programming for children and youth with TBI.

This page last modified on September 19, 2006

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