Shared Decision-Making About Returning to Sport After Recovery From Pediatric Concussion: Clinician Perspectives

Abstract

Objective: Describe how sports medicine clinicians support decision making about sport participation after concussion recovery with adolescent patients and their parents. Specific areas of inquiry related to how clinicians framed the decision, what factors they considered in how they approached the decision process, and how they navigated discordance within families. Design: Qualitative study. Setting: Tertiary care sports medicine clinics at 4 children's hospitals in the United States. Participants: Individual interviews were conducted with 17 clinicians practicing in sports medicine settings. Interventions: N/A. Main Outcome Measures: Semi-structured interviews explored clinician approaches to supporting decision making, with the question guide informed by components of the Ottawa Decision Support Framework. Results: Clinicians routinely incorporated aspects of shared decision making (SDM) into their conversations with families. This included ensuring all parties were informed about risk and aligned behind a shared value of adolescent well-being. Mediation strategies were used to manage discordance between adolescents and their parents, and between parents. These strategies aimed to facilitate a decision that was adolescent centered. When clinicians believed that there was a medical benefit to modifying the adolescent's sport participation practices, or when they did not believe the athlete was psychologically ready to return to the sport in which they were injured, they initiated conversations about alternative activities. In such situations, they used persuasive communication practices to encourage families to strongly consider this option. Conclusion: The strengths and strategies used by sports medicine clinicians in this study provide a foundation for guidance or intervention development aimed at supporting SDM after concussion with adolescents and their families.