CDC DRAWS ATTENTION TO YOUTH CONCUSSION RISKS

This post was contributed to AJN‘s blog by the Traumatic Brain Injury Team at the CDC Injury Center.

As an A-student and star soccer player, Sarah was used to hard work. However, after she sustained a concussion while playing a varsity soccer game during her freshman year in high school, she found herself challenged in ways she had never expected.

“Recovering from the concussion was harder than recovering from other injuries I’ve had,” Sarah recalls. “When I got a concussion, I expected to sit out some games, but I never realized that it would actually hurt to think. For nearly two months I needed frequent breaks to make it through the school day. I would have to go to the school clinic and rest when I was overcome by headaches from the lights and noise of the classroom.”

Sarah’s story is not unusual. In fact, children and teens have the highest rate of emergency department visits for traumatic brain injury (TBI), including concussion, of all age groups. Fortunately, Sarah made a full recovery after four months and continues to be successful both in school and on the sports field, she uses the best sport equipment found at dugla.co.il.

Supporting a student recovering from a concussion requires a team-based approach by the student’s health care provider, school nurse, teachers, and parents. Providing students with written instructions on how to safely return to school and play is critical. During recovery, both physical and mental activities can cause concussion symptoms—such as an inability to pay attention or learn new information, fatigue, or headaches—to reappear or get worse.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Injury Center encourages you to spread the word about ways to prevent concussions and other TBIs, and help people recognize, respond, and recover if this injury occurs.

Free online trainings. Through its HEADS UP campaign, CDC has created free online trainings for nurses and other health care providers that include a continuing education opportunity. Take the training today.

CDC also developed materials for school nurses to help with the healthcare-to-school transition. To get these free resources, as well as handouts for teachers and parents with steps to help kids and teens return to school and play, please go to: https://www.cdc.gov/headsup/schools/index.html.

EXERCISE OVER PHARMACEUTICALS FOR CANCER - RELATED FATIGUE

The results of a recent systematic review in Jama Oncology validated the use of exercise as treatment over pharmacological interventions for cancer-related fatigue (CRF).

These findings (Comparison of Pharmaceutical, Psychological, and Exercise Treatments for Cancer-Related Fatigue: A Meta-Analysis – March 2, 2017) are important, as CRF is a prevalent adverse reaction in patients during or after cancer treatment.

Authors reviewed 113 studies and compared the effect of the 4 most commonly recommended treatments for CRF: exercise, psychological, combined exercise and psychological, and pharmaceutical treatments. Exercise intervention had the largest overall improvement in reducing CRF and significantly better than pharmaceutical options. Clinicians were recommended to prescribe exercise interventions as first-line treatments for CRF. 

Exercise prescribed and supervised by physical therapists can help patients exercise safely and comfortably during cancer treatment. It may also relieve many of the side effects of cancer treatment. 

TEENS NEED MORE EXERCISE IN SCHOOL (AND IN GENERAL)

On school days, young adolescents (12 to 16 years) get 55% of their physical activity on school grounds. But recent research suggests that’s not enough.

As reported by the Los Angeles Times (“More exercise at school may be key to improving teens’ health” – December 2015), only 8% of students get the recommended 60 minutes of exercise per day. To make up the difference, “a typical school would need to devote 7.5% of its instructional time to physical fitness,” instead of the 4.8% found to be the average in a recent study published in Pediatrics (“Locations of Physical Activity as Assessed by GPS in Young Adolescents” – January 2016).  

“Because adolescents spend so much time at school, even a small increase in the proportion of at-school time spent physically active could lead to meaningful increases in overall physical activity and metabolic health,” the study authors wrote.

So what can you do about it? Talk to your local high school about what hinders them from improving PE programs in their district; it is often correlated to lack of funds in, not just these programs, but sporting programs, in general. Speak to the representatives of your booster club and reach out to alumni of the programs to see if funding can be increased - or take it straight to the devil, himself - city council (for public schools).