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cdc.gov

HEADS UP

Also: HEADS UP Concussion in Youth Sports · HEADS UP to Youth Sports Coaches

CDC concussion education initiative, developed in response to the Children's Health Act of 2000, that teaches coaches, parents, athletes, school professionals and clinicians to prevent, recognize and respond to concussion. Coach materials and free online training are widely mandated by youth sports organizations.

Years
2003–now
Country
United States
Topic
Injury prevention
Asks people to
RecognizeSeek helpTalk to someone
Strategy
Self efficacySimple instruction
Channel
Clinical settingPrintSchool
Audience
CliniciansParentsYouth
Youth and high school sports coaches, parents, athletes, school professionals, sports officials, health care providers.

Evidence

ExperimentalPositive

Cluster-randomized trial at 15 YMCA associations (764 coaches): coaches given HEADS UP materials became more likely to talk with athletes about concussion (aRR 1.24, 95% CI 1.14-1.36) while controls did not change (aRR 1.09, 0.90-1.31); symptom knowledge also rose. Parallel trial: parents talking with their child about concussion rose in intervention branches (aRR 1.33, 1.22-1.44) but not controls.

Sponsor (who paid)

Credits (who made it)

Sources

  1. Kroshus E et al. Randomized Evaluation of CDC HEADS UP Concussion Education Materials for Youth Sport Coaches. J Neurotrauma 2023;40(15-16):1584-1595 evaluation · 2023 · DOI 10.1089/neu.2022.0504 · PMID 36694461
  2. Zhou H et al. Parent-child communication about concussion: what role can CDC's HEADS UP handouts play? Brain Inj 2022;36(9):1133-1139 evaluation · 2022 · DOI 10.1080/02699052.2022.2109740 · PMID 35980309
  3. About the HEADS UP Campaign (CDC) sponsor
  4. Lessons Learned From 10 Years of Heads Up (NPHIC 2013) history · 2013
  5. Sarmiento K et al. Evaluation of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's concussion initiative for high school coaches: 'Heads Up: Concussion in High School Sports'. J Sch Health 2010 evaluation · 2010 · DOI 10.1111/j.1746-1561.2010.00491.x · PMID 20236412
  6. Covassin T et al. Educating coaches about concussion in sports: evaluation of the CDC's 'Heads Up: concussion in youth sports' initiative. J Sch Health 2012 evaluation · 2012 · DOI 10.1111/j.1746-1561.2012.00692.x · PMID 22494094
  7. Daugherty J et al. Effectiveness of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention HEADS UP coaches' online training as an educational intervention. Health Educ J 2019 evaluation · 2019 · DOI 10.1177/0017896919846185 · PMID 31530957
  8. Rice T et al. Parental knowledge of concussion: Evaluation of the CDC's 'Heads up to parents' educational initiative. J Safety Res 2019 evaluation · 2019 · DOI 10.1016/j.jsr.2019.02.007 · PMID 31235239

Research notes

Credits checked 2026-10-22 against fetched pages: FHI 360 (PubMed record of the 2023 randomized evaluation of HEADS UP coach materials, first-listed affiliation FHI 360, Washington, DC). Corrected 2026-10-22: source moved from the DOI link (publisher blocks fetching) to PubMed. Start year 2003 inferred from the 2013 '10 years of Heads Up' paper; confirm. Outcome is communication behavior, not concussion incidence. Meta Ad Library / Google Ads Transparency Center: search advertiser 'Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)' (Meta page 'CDC'). Evaluation sources added 2026-10-22 (citation snowballing / helpline pass): Sarmiento 2010, Covassin 2012, Daugherty 2019, Rice 2019; evidence level and outcome unchanged.

Record cases/cdc-heads-up.json, updated 2026-10-22· Link to this campaign