Exploring the association between recent concussion, subconcussive impacts and depressive symptoms in male Australian Football players

Objectives: To explore the association between depressive symptoms and recent head-related trauma (diagnosed concussion, subconcussive impacts) in semiprofessional male Australian Football (AF) players. Methods: Sixty-nine semiprofessional male players from a West Australian Football League (WAFL) club participated in the study (M age =21.81, SD=2.91 years). Depressive symptoms were measured using the Centre for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale. Injuries and potential confounding variables (eg, pre-existing mental health condition; alcohol or drug hangovers; experiencing a stressful event) were self-reported anonymously using the WAFL Injury Report Survey. Both tools were administered every 2-weeks over the first 22-weeks of the WAFL season. Controlling for potential confounding variables and other injuries, a repeated measures generalised estimating equations model assessed the risk of clinically relevant depressive symptoms occurring, when diagnosed concussion or subconcussive impacts were experienced. Results: A total of 10 concussions and 183 subconcussive impacts were reported. Players who experienced a concussion were almost nine times more likely to experience clinically relevant depressive symptoms (OR 8.88, 95% CI 2.65 to 29.77, p \u3c 0.001). Although elevated, depressive symptoms following subconcussive impacts were not statistically significant (OR 1.13, 95% CI 0.67 to 1.92, p = 0.641). Conclusion: These findings indicate that semiprofessional AF athletes may be at risk of experiencing depressive symptoms after concussion. Severity (concussion vs subconcussive impacts) and dose (number of impacts) appear to have an important relationship with depressive symptom outcomes in this cohort and should be considered for further research and management of player welfare. © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2020. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ

We are all one together : peer educators\u27 views about falls prevention education for community-dwelling older adults - a qualitative study

Background: Falls are common in older people. Despite strong evidence for effective falls prevention strategies, there appears to be limited translation of these strategies from research to clinical practice. Use of peers in delivering falls prevention education messages has been proposed to improve uptake of falls prevention strategies and facilitate translation to practice. Volunteer peer educators often deliver educational presentations on falls prevention to community-dwelling older adults. However, research evaluating the effectiveness of peer-led education approaches in falls prevention has been limited and no known study has evaluated such a program from the perspective of peer educators involved in delivering the message. The purpose of this study was to explore peer educators’ perspective about their role in delivering peer-led falls prevention education for community-dwelling older adults. Methods: A two-stage qualitative inductive constant comparative design was used.In stage one (core component) focus group interviews involving a total of eleven participants were conducted. During stage two (supplementary component) semi-structured interviews with two participants were conducted. Data were analysed thematically by two researchers independently. Key themes were identified and findings were displayed in a conceptual framework. Results: Peer educators were motivated to deliver educational presentations and importantly, to reach an optimal peer connection with their audience. Key themes identified included both personal and organisational factors that impact on educators’ capacity to facilitate their peers’ engagement with the message. Personal factors that facilitated message delivery and engagement included peer-to-peer connection and perceived credibility, while barriers included a reluctance to accept the message that they were at risk of falling by some members in the audience. Organisational factors, including ongoing training for peer educators and formative feedback following presentations, were perceived as essential because they affect successful message delivery. Conclusions: Peer educators have the potential to effectively deliver falls prevention education to older adults and influence acceptance of the message as they possess the peer-to-peer connection that facilitates optimal engagement. There is a need to consider incorporating learnings from this research into a formal large scale evaluation of the effectiveness of the peer education approach in reducing falls in older adults

Developing a post compulsory evidence-based alcohol education curriculum that is relevant to students and acceptable to teachers

The aim of this study was to develop a post compulsory, alcohol education curriculum that would be perceived as relevant by students and acceptable to teachers. The study had its conceptual basis in harm minimisation that has considerable justification in terms of what school-based alcohol education can realistically achieve. A harm minimisation approach is supported by parental attitudes, teachers, young people and government policy. To ensure the curriculum was developed in the Western Australian education context it has been linked to the Western Australian Curriculum Framework and adheres to the principles that underpin the framework. Furthermore, this study draws on the features from evaluated health, alcohol and other drug education programs that have the potential to produce some behaviour change. Accordingly, a major focus of the study was to involve young people in the development of the curriculum. To ensure that the curriculum was sensitive to the concerns of the students it sought to influence, twelve focus groups were conducted with year twelve Western Australian students. These focus groups provided invaluable information about young people\u27s alcohol use experiences, alcohol-related harms that are of particular concern to young people, harm reduction strategies used by young people and educational approaches likely to be effective with young people. These insights were incorporated into the development of the curriculum, ensuring it has a basis in situations experienced by young people. Particular attention was also paid to the needs of teachers, involving current health education teachers and health professionals in the development of the content and teaching strategies In addition, teachers who pilot tested the curriculum were trained prior to implementation of the curriculum, The training, based on interactive modelling of activities, was designed to equip teachers with the knowledge, skills and confidence to teach the curriculum as written, and to document any variation so that fidelity of implementation could be assessed. The curriculum was piloted in three Perth high schools in fourth term of 1999. A triangulation of measures was adopted to assess the curriculum including teacher and student assessment and an evaluation workshop. The process evaluation data from both students and teachers indicated that the curriculum was faithfully implemented and consequently evaluated as relevant by the students who participated in the pilot and acceptable by the teachers who taught it. The apparent success of the curriculum in terms of relevance to students and acceptability to teachers appears to be due to the collaborative process used to develop the curriculum. This process may be replicated, adapted, or added to, by other researchers and educators wishing to develop health education curriculum materials that will be viewed as relevant by students and acceptable by teachers while incorporating an evidence-based approach