Steven Broglio’s research on concussion and mild traumatic brain injury informs injury assessment and management policy and practice at the local, state, national and international levels.
Concussions are a common but difficult to diagnose injury that can have long-term effects on cognitive and physical health.
Playing sports and engaging in other athletic activities offers many positive benefits, from improved physical and mental health to camaraderie and the thrill of competition. They can also come with the risk of injury. With as many as 3.8 million sport-related concussions and 32,000 military-related concussions reported in the U.S. each year, concussions are among the most common injuries experienced by active people. They are also one of the most difficult to predict and assess.
Steven Broglio, Ph.D., professor and associate dean at the U-M School of Kinesiology, works to understand concussion and other injuries to the brain. As director of the U-M Concussion Center and director of the U-M Neuro-Trauma Research Laboratory, Broglio is an accomplished researcher and certified athletic trainer with more than 250 publications that explore the root causes of concussion, assessment and treatment of the injury, and the way concussions affect the mind and body years later. He also actively engages with local, state, national, and international policy leaders and other stakeholders to improve concussion prevention, identification, and management protocols. In recognition of his many contributions and impact, Broglio was named a recipient of the Institute for Healthcare Policy & Innovation’s 2024 Policy Impact Award.
Tracking concussion over the lifespan
Unlike other injuries with clear signs and symptoms, concussions vary from injury to injury, and person to person. Broglio’s research into male and female student-athletes and military service members suggests multiple factors contribute to sustaining a concussion, and proper assessment and management of the injury can help reduce the risk of further health complications.
One in four adolescents report having had a concussion, and as many as 10% of all high school athletes will sustain a concussion during their playing career. Broglio’s research shows high school football players experience a more extreme biomechanical response following an impact compared to college-level and professional players, increasing their risk for both concussion and severe spinal injury. His findings also indicate a high frequency of head collisions in the period before a severe impact can increase the risk of sustaining a concussion as well.
But not all athletes and service members report concussion symptoms, making assessment crucial to injury identification. In a study of Division I athletes, Broglio found the various techniques used to assess concussion were only 43-79% effective when used alone. This work helped set new standards of care for athletic trainers and sports medicine clinicians by showing that testing multiple cognitive and physical factors can greatly increase a clinician’s ability to identify concussion.
While concussions are known to affect cognition immediately following injury onset, Broglio’s research indicates they can also cause subtle changes to cognitive functioning that persist long after an apparent return to “normal” health. His work shows mild traumatic brain injuries may have long-term effects on attention and motor control, suggesting people with a history of concussion may experience accelerated declines in cognitive and motor function over time.
In 2014, Broglio was named a co-lead of the Concussion Assessment, Research and Education (CARE) Consortium, the most comprehensive study on concussion and head impact exposure ever conducted. Jointly funded by the NCAA and the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), the project studies the signs and symptoms of head trauma across 53,000 male and female student-athletes, military cadets, and midshipmen during and after their playing and military career, as well as the short, medium, and long-term effects of brain injury. Broglio’s work is helping to redefine recovery times for concussion, highlight the risk of delayed concussion symptom reporting, and show that women with a history of concussion may experience worse symptoms over time than men.
Policy engagement and sustained impact
Broglio uses his expertise to engage with policy stakeholders and help inform the development of concussion policies and protocols used across the world.
International
Since 2008, Broglio has actively contributed to the Concussion in Sport Group’s (CISG) consensus statements. Comprised of the world’s leading concussion research professionals, CISG’s consensus statements serve as the basis for the concussion policies and procedures of schools, sports organizations, and clinicians around the globe. In 2022, Broglio led the development of CISG’s “return to learn” and “return to play” recommendations and served as co-author of the 2022 Consensus Statement.
In 2024, Broglio was elected the inaugural president-elect of the CISG and will assume the presidency in 2025. As president, he will focus on expanding global representation in CISG’s membership, setting organizational goals and leadership development.
National
Broglio worked with the National Athletic Trainers’ Association (NATA) to develop the 2014 and 2024 NATA Position Statement on Concussion Management, a set of nationally recognized best practices used by sports organizations and athletic trainers at all levels of play in the U.S.
Broglio has also been called upon by the federal government to help improve treatment and understanding of concussion. Since 2014, the DoD co-funded CARE Consortium, which Broglio co-leads, has informed concussion policies for American service members, and in 2017 Broglio and team briefed U.S. Secretary of the Army Eric Fanning on the study’s findings. In 2018, he led the National Institutes of Health’s Sport-Related Concussion Common Data Elements Committee, and in 2021 consulted on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s HEADS UP to Athletic Trainers online concussion training program.
Broglio has also reviewed and contributed to the concussion polices of multiple national sports organizations, including U.S. Soccer, U.S. Cycling, and the NCAA.
State and local
As director of the U-M Concussion Center, Broglio helped develop the Michigan Sport-Related Concussion Training Certification, a Michigan Department of Health and Human Services-recognized training for coaches and others involved in youth sports. He has provided recommendations for strengthening Michigan’s Concussion Law, and has worked extensively with the Michigan High School Athletic Association to inform policies that affect young athletes across the state.
In 2023, Broglio worked with Michigan State Representative Carol Glanville and the office of Governor Gretchen Whitmer to designate the third Friday of September Concussion Awareness Day.
More locally, Broglio has contributed to concussion policies across the University of Michigan, including for Michigan Athletics, University of Michigan Recreational Sports, and University Health Services.
Future research
Broglio’s future research will explore the root causes of concussion and the injury’s effects on health. This work will focus on commissioned military officers and former student athletes to determine whether it’s concussions, the number of head impacts, or the years spent participating in physically demanding activities that lead to long-term changes in brain health.
More information about Steven Broglio’s work can be found in his IHPI Profile, in Michigan Experts, and at the Michigan Concussion Center.