Citation

Stein CJ, MacDougall R, Quatman-Yates CC, Myer GD, Sugimoto D, Dennison RJ, Meehan WP. Clin. J. Sport. Med. 2015; 26(5): 386-390.

Affiliation

*Division of Sports Medicine, Department of Orthopaedics, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts; †Division of Occupational and Physical Therapy, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, Ohio; ‡Division of Sports Medicine, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, Ohio; §Sports Medicine Biodynamics Center and Human Performance Laboratory, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, Ohio; ¶Departments of Pediatrics and Orthopaedic Surgery, College of Medicine, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH; ‖The Micheli Center for Sports Injury Prevention, Waltham, Massachusetts; and #Tufts University Family Medicine Residency at Cambridge Health Alliance, Malden, Massachusetts.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, Canadian Academy of Sport Medicine, Publisher Lippincott Williams and Wilkins)

DOI

10.1097/JSM.0000000000000268

PMID

26540601

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Few studies have examined the experience and concerns of the concussed athlete. The purpose of this study was to identify the most pressing concerns of athletes with concussion.

DESIGN: Cross-sectional survey of athletes who presented for evaluation of a new sport-related concussion during an 8-month period. SETTING: Tertiary-level sports medicine division of a large academic pediatric medical center. PARTICIPANTS: One hundred twenty one patients (67 male, 54 female) aged 8 to 18 years who had sustained a sport-related concussion participated in the study by responding to "What is the worst thing for you about having a concussion?" on the study questionnaire. Questionnaires were completed in the clinic waiting room before the visit with a provider. INTERVENTION: Inductive content analysis was used to identify themes in the responses to the study question. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Age, sex, sport played at the time of the current injury, history of previous concussion, known contacts with concussion, and subjective report of worst aspect of concussion.

RESULTS: Seventy respondents (57.9%) cited symptoms, and 68 (56.2%) reported loss of activity as the worst part of concussion, including 17 (14.0%) who listed both symptoms and loss of activity.

CONCLUSIONS: Over half of concussed athletes indicate that the most distressing part of the injury is loss of activities, which may result from symptoms of the injury itself and/or the prescribed treatment. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Health care providers should not underestimate the degree to which symptoms and loss of activities affect young athletes' general well-being. In addition to the negative impact of concussion symptoms, there is an obvious cost of physical, cognitive, and social activity restrictions for patients recovering from sport-related concussions that should be explicitly addressed.

Language: en