07/20/2016
Contacts: Christine Gillette, 978-934-2209 or [email protected] and Nancy Cicco, 978-934-4944 or [email protected]
Detailed survey results and analysis are available at www.uml.edu/polls. Representatives from UMass Lowell are available for interviews on today’s survey.
LOWELL, Mass. – As football training camps begin in just days, a majority of Americans say they believe concussions and brain injuries resulting from this and other sports are a major problem and that leagues like NFL are not doing enough to address them, according to a national survey released today by the UMass Lowell Center for Public Opinion.
Ninety-four percent of 1,000 U.S. adults surveyed believe concussions and head injuries resulting from participation in sports are a public health problem and 65 percent believe these injuries are a major problem, according to the new poll conducted independently by the Center for Public Opinion. Only 6 percent said they did not consider sports-related concussions a problem.
Eighty-five percent of respondents believe science shows that playing soccer can cause chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) and 87 percent say brain trauma resulting from CTE is a serious public health problem.
“One of the key findings of the survey is that there is widespread awareness of CTE among respondents who identify as sports fans. Of these, 66 percent say head injuries in sports are a major problem and are critical of the handling of concussions by sports organizations like the NFL and NHL,” said Professor Joshua Dyck, co-director of the Center for Public Opinion. who supervised the vote and analyzed the results.
Fifty-two percent of respondents who identify as sports fans said the NFL has not been responsive enough to the concussion problem. Feelings about the National Hockey League were similar, with 42 percent saying the NHL hasn’t done enough. Less than a quarter of respondents (22 percent for the NFL and 15 percent for the NHL) said the leagues had made appropriate changes.
The poll also found strong support among men and women, parents and non-parents, for limiting tackling and other youth sports activities, including football and hockey, which present a potential for contact with the head.
A majority of Americans surveyed, 78 percent, said it was not appropriate for children to participate in soccer games before the age of 14, compared with 21 percent who said it was acceptable for children. children under 14 years old. Opposition was strongest among women – 94 percent opposed. before age 10 and 84 percent oppose it before age 14 – but almost three-quarters (72 percent) of men surveyed also oppose it before age 14.
Forty-eight percent of respondents said contact football is definitely or probably not safe, even for high school students and among respondents who are familiar with Pop Warner football’s answer to the problem of concussions and injuries. sports-related brain injuries, 62 percent said the youth football organization has not done enough.
According to the survey, 60% of respondents believe it is unsafe for children who play soccer to “head” a ball before they reach high school, compared to 40% who think it is acceptable.
“This survey confirms growing public awareness that concussions can lead to CTE, a degenerative brain disease, and that CTE is now considered a serious public health problem,” said Associate Professor Jeffrey Gerson. , political science faculty member at UMass Lowell. worked on the survey. Gerson has studied media coverage of sports concussions over the past decade, presented papers on the topic and teaches courses that examine the politics of the issue of sports concussions. “The survey also confirms that the public believes that one of the greatest threats to athletes is at the youth level. Negative public opinion on tackling football for children under 14 and ball striking in youth football could lead to further changes in these sports that could have a knock-on effect on the sports for older children, especially at the secondary level.
The poll of 1,000 American adults was conducted by YouGov on behalf of the Center for Public Opinion. Representative samples were obtained through a non-probability method that uses propensity score matching to match survey respondents to a frame created from the 2010 American Community Survey. The margin of error is plus or minus 4.2 percent. The survey was conducted from May 31 to June 6. The center received no outside funding for the survey.
More information about the survey methodology and survey data is available at www.uml.edu/polls.
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