Lessons Learned From 10 Years of Heads Up

Background:  Children and teens ages 5 to 18 account for an estimated 65% of emergency department visits for sports and recreation-related traumatic brain injuries (TBIs), including concussions. Concussions can have a serious effect on a young, developing brain and need to be addressed correctly to prevent both short- and long-term health problems that can affect a child’s thinking, learning, behavior and emotions.

Program background:  This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Heads Up Initiative that provides information to health care professionals, coaches, school professionals, parents, and athletes on how to prevent, recognize and respond to concussion and other serious TBIs.

Evaluation Methods and Results:  Combining innovative and evidence-based communication strategies, CDC created Heads Up, a series of educational initiatives that are grounded in audience preferences for content, design, format, and distribution channels. Early formative research—including focus groups and in-depth interviews with health care providers—identified a need for resources and related research with coaches, who are often first to see concussion symptoms on the playing field. Subsequent research and input from partner organizations highlighted the need for engaging school professionals, as well as the need for education and supporting materials for parents and young athletes. Ongoing evaluation of the Heads Up materials and feedback from experts and partners in the field provided continual insights on how to update, distribute, and expand Heads Up in order to empower all audiences that play a role in concussion recognition and management.

To date, Heads Up has partnered with over 85 organizations, received over 80 million media impressions through print media and TV public service announcements (PSAs), trained over 1 million youth and high school coaches, distributed more than 4 million print resources, increased CDC’s concussion and TBI webpage views by 200%, developed over 40 products; and obtained over 30 million social-media impressions. In addition, results from formative evaluation illustrate self-reported favorable changes in knowledge, attitudes, and practices toward the prevention and management of concussions after exposure to the Heads Up materials.

Conclusions:  CDC’s Heads Up Initiative helps to educate and protect people of all ages, especially children and teens, from concussions and their potentially devastating effects. From the first Heads Up materials for health care providers, to later efforts focusing on coaches, parents, athletes, and school professionals, the Heads Up Initiative has helped improve concussion prevention, recognition, and response nationwide.

Implications for research and/or practice:  The Heads Up Initiative demonstrates how a health education and communication initiative can play a critical role in driving the science of an important health issue. In addition, Heads Up exemplifies the importance of integrating partners into an initiative and the role partners can play in expanding the reach of an initiative, providing cost-effective distribution channels, and ultimately helping to create a national conversation on concussion among children and teens.