Objective To explore if sport participation, specifically high-risk and team, influenced concussion knowledge and behaviours among high school students.

Design Cross-sectional.

Setting Students completed a novel concussion survey at nine Canadian high schools.

Participants 1330 students (592 males, 687 females, M=15.31±1.32 years) completed the survey. Students were recruited from 9 high schools and were excluded if they were younger than 12 or older than 19.

Outcome Measures Responses were provided on the survey which examines student demographics, concussion knowledge, intention to report a concussion to an adult and intention to provide social support to a peer.

Main Results Students who participated in high-risk and team sports were more likely to be male (P<0.0005) and have a concussion history (P<0.0005). Students who played high-risk and team sports had less favourable intentions to report a concussion (P=0.002; P=0.001) and less favourable intentions to provide social support (P<0.0005; P=0.004) compared to those that did not. Additionally, those that played team sports felt they knew a lot about concussions (P=0.047), however had lower knowledge scores compared to those that did not (P=0.044). There were no differences in knowledge scores between students who did and did not play high-risk sports.

Conclusions This study highlights gaps in concussion knowledge as well as intended reporting and social support behaviours among students who play high-risk and team sports. This suggests that future concussion education and programming should be tailored towards these groups.

Trial Registration ISRCTN registry (ISRCTN64944275).