The world's largest comprehensive concussion study to examine the impacts of head injuries over several years has expanded with $22.5 million in new funding from the U.S. Department of Defense and the NCAA.
Here are six things to know:
1. The NCAA-DOD Concussion Assessment, Research and Education Consortium was first established in 2014 to research how concussions affect the brain, as well as identify improvement measures in diagnosis, treatment and prevention.
2. The study has collected data on more than 39,000 student athletes and cadets at 30 colleges and military service academies. This includes more than 3,300 participants who have sustained concussions, making it the largest sample of concussions ever researched in a single study.
3. The initial phase of the study was funded through a joint NCAA-DOD $30 million grant and focused on the acute effects of concussions by evaluating participants in the immediate hours, days and weeks after the injury in comparison to baseline tests from the start of the study.
4. The new study phase is being funded through the NCAA's $12.5 million contribution and a two-year grant from the DOD for $12.5 million.
5. The new phase will conduct comprehensive testing of the participants as they leave college and up to four years post-collegiate sports or service academy career. The expanded approach will:
• Study the intermediate and cumulative effects of concussion and repetitive head impact exposure
• Distinguish the different effects of concussion, repetitive head impact and sports participation with no history of either concussion or repetitive head impact exposure
6. On the expansion of the study's second phase, Thomas W. McAllister, MD, leader of the study's administrative and operations center, said, "We have gathered important information about the short-term effects of concussions over the past few years, but there is still a lot we do not understand about how our brains respond to different types of impact over time."