Abstract
Objective
To describe concussion characteristics among general college students and compare
postinjury outcomes to intercollegiate student athletes.
Design
Retrospective cohort.
Setting
Large university in the Southeast region of the United States.
Participants
A total of 179 (N=179) college students’ (female=120; 67.0%; 23.9±3.9 years) and 49
athletes’ (female=28, 57.1%;19.3±1.3 years) medical records were examined. Participants
self-reported injury mechanism, health history information, and completed clinical
assessments acutely (<7 days postinjury).
Main Outcome Measures
Descriptive statistics were calculated for each group. Concussion outcomes between
students with and without certain health history diagnoses were assessed using separate
t tests. We conducted univariate regression analyses to determine if sex, age, and
time from concussion to first clinical assessment were significant predictors of clinical
outcomes. Statistically significant variables were included as covariates in a series
of 1-way analyses of covariance to identify differences in balance, symptom severity,
total symptom presence, and neurocognitive domain performance between students and
athletes. Fisher exact tests were used to compare health history information between
groups (α<0.05).
Results
Among students, 24% reported sustaining a concussion while participating in recreational
sports, and 27% of impacts occurred to the back of the head. Students had higher proportions
of headache, migraine, anxiety, and depression (P<.05). Students reported greater total symptom presence (P=.006) and performed worse on the computerized neurocognitive test domain score for
complex attention (P=.015) relative to athletes.
Conclusions
These findings highlight the need for better access to medical care for non– National
Collegiate Athletic Association sanctioned athletes because of a large proportion
of concussions in the student sample being sustained during sports participation.
Identifying common injury mechanisms can provide clinicians with powerful information
to improve evaluation and treatment models.
Keywords
List of abbreviations:
ADHD (attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder), BESS (Balance Error Scoring System), CNT (neurocognitive testing), LD (learning disorder), RCI (reliable change index)To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: October 18, 2021
Accepted:
September 8,
2021
Received in revised form:
September 7,
2021
Received:
June 15,
2021
Footnotes
Supported, in part, with support from the Grand Alliance Concussion Assessment, Research, and Education (CARE) Consortium, funded, in part, by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the Department of Defense (DOD). The US Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity, 820 Chandler St, Fort Detrick MD 21702-5014 is the awarding and administering acquisition office. This work was supported by the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs through the Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury Program under Award No. W81XWH-14-2-0151. Opinions, interpretations, conclusions and recommendations are those of the author and are not necessarily endorsed by the Department of Defense (DHP funds).
Disclosures: none
Identification
Copyright
Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of The American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine.
