Pressure. A Qualitative Analysis of the Perception of Concussion and Injury Risk in Retired Professional Rugby Players
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Methods
2.1. Study Design
2.2. Eligibility Criteria and Sampling
Participant Characteristics
2.3. Ethics & Procedure
2.4. Procedure & Data Collection
2.5. Data Analysis
2.6. Researcher Background
3. Results
3.1. Theme 1—Medical & Theoretical Understanding of Concussion
3.1.1. Awareness of the Physiology of Concussion
3.1.2. Non-Medical Descriptions & Understanding
3.2. Theme 2—Descriptions of Symptoms and Disassociated Language
Understating the Injury and Using Casual Terminology
3.3. Theme 3—Concussion Experiences, Misunderstanding of Subconcussive Impacts, Categories of Concussion
3.3.1. Knock Out Blows and Misunderstanding Subconcussive Impacts
3.3.2. Categories of Concussion
3.3.3. Unacknowledged or Hiding Concussion Symptomology
3.4. Theme 4—Peer Influences on Concussion within the Sport
Sporting Culture, Reinforced Social Norms
4. Discussion
4.1. Reflexivity
4.2. Study Limitations
5. Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Conflicts of Interest
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Theme | Category | Sub-Category | Terminology | Selected Illustrative Comments from Players |
---|---|---|---|---|
Medical and theoretical understanding of concussion | Awareness of the physiology of concussion Non-medical descriptions | Mechanism of concussion Use of analogies to understand and describe symptoms | Impact, whiplash injury, shaking the brain, chinned Déjà vu, brain fog, deep sleep, being drunk, pressure in the head, disorientated, foggy, deep sleep, blacked out | “get the impact there going one direction and the impact sends him another direction and it’s actually not them hitting the ground. It’s the movement of their head at that speed.“ (P6) “it’s a blinding concussion…… like a big charge, but it just went through my whole body and then boom, I fell on the ground”. (P3) “It was like being blackout drunk and not remember anything for hours later”. (P5) “You just feel, you know, your head full of pressure, I had that mild symptoms, a total pain in the back area or between your eyes and then just tension”. (P21) |
Descriptions of symptoms and disassociated language | Understating the injury and using casual terminology | Dismissive; a non-serious injury | Crack, head knock, bang to the head, run of the mill concussion, Spots, stars, blurry vision, bell rung, dizziness, in a haze | “that spark sort of thing is when you’re going to make that tackle and your head in the wrong spot. If someone really winged you in contact, that’s what I’m talking about with those one”. (P16) “To be honest, I’d say, you know, it was one of what do they call having your bell rung or something like that”. (P18) |
Personal concussion experiences; misunderstanding of sub concussive impacts, categories of concussion | Knock out blows and sub concussive impacts | Knock out blows experience | Numbness, knocked out, panned out, out cold | “I was knocked out to a point where it’s just a real numbness”. (P3) “I got knocked clean out and I just remember being brought in the car after I’ve been to the hospital”. (P11) “I was out cold in the field, tongue going down my throat”. (P15) |
Understanding; concussion and sub concussive impacts | Not fully knocked out, wobbly, gradual onset of symptoms, headaches | “I know it is a kind of grey area, you know, there’s a lot of times, you know, there’s a misunderstanding of what I call concussion actually is, I suppose the easiest way to kind of get this across is that I never had a situation where I was out cold where I was like fully unconscious”. (P17) “I took a knock to the head and that was another gradual onset like initial thing was quite painful and the session was finished, very hot day as well. It was horrible because they’re terrible headache and you know I didn’t really want to talk to anyone or anything like that”. (P22) | ||
Categories of concussion | Minor concussions, strata of concussions, small episodes | “It’s like a minor concussion and you play on, adrenaline gets through, but the next day your neck and your top your head would be sore to touch”. (P10) “The minor ones were, like, suppose any Sunday after a game it will be you’re sore everywhere. Like my neck and head would have been sore. And for the three or four days and it was like I could feel the side effects. Vision was slightly blurry, I wasn’t myself”. (P10) | ||
Unacknowledged or hiding concussion symptoms | Shake it off, get on with it, not being right, temporarily not cognitively present | “You feel like you were there before or yesterday or a week before, and that would be a constant thing where you get knocked all different angles”. (P10) | ||
Peer influences on concussion within the sport | Sporting culture, reinforced social norms | Influences on staying in the game | Loyalty, not admitting being injured, badge of honour, pressure from teammates | “If you were able to stand up and play on and tackle the fellow in front of you and carried ball and everything, you’re not coming close enough. You’re not concussed enough to go off like, it kind of goes back to the point, that unless you’re asleep on the field and can’t actually stand up, you’re staying, and you play on, was the prevalent attitude”. (P1) “Players are pretty sharp these days as well as you know, it’s not just a case of ‘man up and get on with it’”. (P2) “The mentality of the whole sport around concussion, there was no talk about them”. (P8) “I understand guys put pressure on themselves to keep playing and toughen up and you know that is rugby for sure” (P12) “I think that sort of is encouraging, whereas in years gone by, it would be sort of seen as a badge of a badge of honour, whereas now, I think boys are sort of saying ‘look, that’s not cool’. That’s an important thing ‘cause obviously there’s pressure from your teammates in that sort of environment”. (P12) |
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Daly, E.; White, A.; Blackett, A.D.; Ryan, L. Pressure. A Qualitative Analysis of the Perception of Concussion and Injury Risk in Retired Professional Rugby Players. J. Funct. Morphol. Kinesiol. 2021, 6, 78. https://doi.org/10.3390/jfmk6030078
Daly E, White A, Blackett AD, Ryan L. Pressure. A Qualitative Analysis of the Perception of Concussion and Injury Risk in Retired Professional Rugby Players. Journal of Functional Morphology and Kinesiology. 2021; 6(3):78. https://doi.org/10.3390/jfmk6030078
Chicago/Turabian StyleDaly, Ed, Adam White, Alexander D. Blackett, and Lisa Ryan. 2021. "Pressure. A Qualitative Analysis of the Perception of Concussion and Injury Risk in Retired Professional Rugby Players" Journal of Functional Morphology and Kinesiology 6, no. 3: 78. https://doi.org/10.3390/jfmk6030078