The prevalence of head injury among community college students.

Abstract

The present study investigated the prevalence of head injury among community college students. Five community colleges in four states were asked to participate in the study. The students were asked to respond to a questionnaire about head injuries. The questionnaire was specifically designed to measure the incidence of head-injury or prolonged periods of unconsciousness of 20 minutes or more. A total of 835 questionnaires were collected and analyzed. Forty students (4.79%) indicated having sustained a medically diagnosed head-injury/illness. Eighty-nine students (10.66%) reported an unconscious episode of 20 minutes or longer. The remaining students, 706 (84.55%), reported no period of prolonged unconsciousness or headinjury/illness. Analyses of variance were conducted to determine if there was a significant difference between the mean ages and GPAs of the three groups. The age factor was significant f(2, 832) = 20.98, Q< .001. Tukey's (a) test was conducted to measure where the significant differences existed. Significant differences of the age factor were found between the group of students who had a prolonged period of unconsciousness and the other two groups, which did not differ. The mean GPAs of the groups did not show significance. Descriptive statistics were also conducted on the data. The results give support to the study by Holmes, Kixmiller, Minor, Thomas, and Wurtz (in press) of four year institutions. However, further analyses and replications of the present study are needed to accurately assess the needs of this particular group of individuals.