Good Research Paper On Traumatic Brain Injury In Sports

Traumatic Brain Injuries in Sports

Introduction
Sports have been part of the daily lives of many people. It has been a passion and a way of enjoyment in a lot of people and sometimes a universal power to uniquely attract, inspire and motivate communities and individual people to make sure that they are healthy (United Nations, n.d.). Sports also play an important role in mobilizing educational, social and communicational capabilities of people. Through sport, people have a way of communicating and mobilizing professional sports athletes to share information and their insights of the sports benefits to people. Because of the increasing research on the health-related benefits of sports, the levels of physical activity people are doing are also increasing. But sometimes, instead of helping improve the health of people, going in for sports is likely to cause accidents and further increase their health-related problems. One of the main accidents that people get from sports is the traumatic brain injury. Traumatic brain injury became a major concern to a lot of people, since it affects the most precious part of the human body, the brain. In many ways, we can think how it became an important issue to people who are actively participating in sports and even those who are just playing for fun.

The problem

Traumatic Brain Injury in sports is a problem because people have no proper knowledge on this specific field of research. A lot of people are very ignorant about this type of injury that can be acquired in sports. People are just playing and enjoying sports without the proper caution about the events or accidents that may happen like the traumatic brain injury.
According to Stern and the other experts on the field of sports injuries (2011), the traumatic brain injury has gained a lot of attention to people. They are already realizing the importance of the researches, studies, recognition and the management of the sport-related injury. The most common sports that are very popular to people are basketball, soccer, wrestling, hockey and football. These kinds of sports have gained name when it comes to traumatic brain injury. Because these sports often entail much aggression, it has a lot of risk to the exposure in brain injuries.
In the research of Williams (2004), the operational definition of Traumatic Brain Injury is an injury that has been acquired by the brain that is caused by an external physical force that result in a total or partial disability of the functions of the brain or the psycho-social impairment that can affect the performance of the people suffering from it. People who met this kind of injury through sports may have a lot of changes (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, n.d.). The changes may include impairments in the different areas of the brain like in the parts that control memory, reasoning, language, sensory, motor ability, speech, information processing, and physical functions (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2013)
This topic is important to know because of these changes that people may acquire during playing sports. Not only are the discussion traumas likely to cause temporary effects, they are also likely to ruin normal psychosocial awareness (Alzheimer’s Association, 2012).

Past Research

Several studies have focused on this specific area of research. On the research done by Finch and Watt (1996), the way they handled and discussed the Traumatic Brain Injury is done through studying medical and sports literature databases, discussions with sporting bodies and conference dialogues. It is important to have published sports literature and reports of the discussions of sports researchers. The literatures that have been gathered regarding the topic are very important. This is the key to critically assess the different countermeasures that have been done to prevent the type of injury during sports-related activities.
This method is used to critically evaluate and demonstrate the prevention done to this kind of injury. It is worth saying that unlike many other studies focused on emphasizing the effects of traumatic brain injury to people, the survey of Finch and Watt (1996) aims to prevent this injury. As for the results of their studies, there is a good proof that the use of helmets can be a means of preventing this type of brain injury. But there are studies that the uses of protective helmets do not always prevent brain injuries as expected from them.
The statistics on the use of protective helmets have proven that there is a need to further study the device and assess it scientifically. With the results they have gathered regarding the use of protective helmets, they put their attention to other ways of preventing traumatic brain injuries like the implementation of laws and rules, appropriate use of equipment’s, playing environment, safety lessons and first aid measures. This is the result of their study on preventing people from accidents, specifically on traumatic brain injury.
Other research has focused on how people will reintegrate after having a traumatic brain injury. According to McWilliams (2004), traumatic brain injuries in one of the main cause of disabilities of children’s and sometimes lead to death. Most people who experience incidence that cause traumatic brain injuries are those less than 5 years old (Bazarian et al, 2005). Through the literatures reviews, they saw the different deficiency in terms of the laws or rules and the proper education regarding the topic. Due to this, they used a method of studying an integrating people who has a traumatic brain injury.
They gathered data from medical records, educational records, archival records, family perceptions and the therapists’ comments. Through the data gathered, they were able to conclude results that were categorized into two; the strengths and the weaknesses. The strengths were categorized into cooperation, caring professionals, willingness of instructors to accept people with traumatic brain injury, and the existing structure for disabled students (National Institutes of Health, 1998). And as for the weaknesses, it is categorized into the no written plan of approach, little knowledge of the injury and the lack of specific historical data.

Current Research

According to Institute of Medicine and National Research Council (2013), the past decades have few issues that intersect sports and medicine, which is the injury brought by sports, specifically the traumatic brain injury. Even though there is an increase in the awareness of the people regarding this type of injury, the traumatic brain injury still persist in many sports and in many people (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2011). This has threatened the safety of the people in sports and parents became more conscious in choosing the sports that their children must attend to. Due to this, the authorities have made a move and became focused on the prevention of the injury. They used a method that review the literatures and statistics related on the topic. There is a time when a committee was convened to address the sports-related injury. The committee reviewed how traumatic brain injury is being discussed in the literatures like its impact on the development of the neurobiology, effectiveness of protective equipment’s, and the treatments and management. Through these reviews they were able to make recommendations like on the funding of research agencies, the management of athletic directors, and the implementations of rules and regulations that people have to follow.
I can conclude that the current researches have a more complex way of assessing and managing the issue of traumatic brain injury. They have a lot of preventive measures on the issue. And from the way they handle the issue, I can say that the researches being made nowadays cover a lot of concepts and ideas to further study the topic. From what I have read, I can conclude the complexity of the countermeasures is a good way for prevention.

Strengths and Weaknesses

The studies that have been done on the topic are focused on the reviews of literatures. The strengths of the researches done are on the credibility of the data they have and its accurateness. Most of the data they have gathered are from statistics of authorities and the reviewed literatures are mostly from academic and medical researches. While the weaknesses of the researches are that they focused on past studies and reviews, and have small number of case studies of the topic. We can improve the research on this specific area by focusing on the case studies of individuals and how they interact with the life they have now. Interviews are also a good way of gathering the data for the research of the topic. Through these improvements in the research, the future generations will have an in-depth and a more detailed view of the topic, and have a clear understanding of the topic through a more realistic and contextual reports.

Conclusion

The issues on the Traumatic Brain Injury in sports have caused a lot of people to be alarmed of the situation. There is an increased attention on the topic and its prevention. Most of the researches that have been made are focused on concluding and giving recommendations through the review of the past literature about the topic. The complexity of the countermeasures is needed in order to have clear preventive techniques of acquiring the injury. From researching this specific topic, I conclude that the future researchers will be able to know where to focus their research more and prevent from being focused on the reviews of literatures. They will be able to have a clear and new approach of the topic and be creative in their researches. Even though I say that the future researchers should look in a different point of view, I can’t argue that the review of literature is still important.

References

Alzheimer’s Association. (2012). Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). Alzheimer’s Association.
Bazarian, J., McClung, J., Shah, M., Cheng, Y., Flesher, W., & Kraus, J. (2005). Brain Injury. New York: Taylor & Francis Ltd.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2011). Nonfatal Traumatic Brain Injuries Related to Sports and Recreation Activities. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2014). Traumatic Brain Injury. Atlanta: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Finch, C., & Watt, G. (1996). LOCKING THE STABLE DOOR: PREVENTING EQUESTRIAN INJURIES. Monash University.
National Institutes of Health. (1998). Rehabilitation of Persons With Traumatic Brain Injury. Maryland: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development .
Stern, R., Riley, D., Daneshvar, D., Nowinski, C., Cantu, R., & McKee, A. (2011). Long-term Consequences of Repetitive Brain Trauma:Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy. American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services . (n.d.). Facts for Physicians About Mild Traumatic Brain Injury (MTBI) . Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
United Nation. (n.d.). SPORT AND HEALTH: PREVENTING DISEASE AND PROMOTING HEALTH. United Nation.