Citation

Trbovich AM, Fazio-Sumrok V, Preszler J, Shaffer MA, Kegel N, Kissinger-Knox A, Collins MW, Kontos AP. J. Pediatr. 2023; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2023, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.jpeds.2023.02.024

PMID

36889630

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the clinical utility of the Child SCAT5 in an outpatient specialty clinic sample of children ages 5-9. STUDY DESIGN: Ninety-six children within 30 days of a concussion (M=8.90+5.78 days) and 43 age and sex-matched healthy controls completed the Child SCAT5, including balance items, cognitive screening, parent and child symptom and severity reports, as well as each individual parent- and child-rated symptom severity (0-3). A series of receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves with area under the curve (AUC) analysis were performed to evaluate the clinical utility of the Child SCAT5 components to discriminate concussion.

RESULTS: The AUC values were non-discriminate for cognitive screening (.32) and poor for balance (.61) items. The AUC values were acceptable for parent-reported symptoms worsening after physical activity (.73) and mental activity (.72). The AUCs for symptom severity items were excellent for parent (.89) and child-reported (.81) headaches, and were acceptable for parent-reported tired a lot (.75), and both parent (.72) and child-reported (.72) tired easily.

CONCLUSION: With the exception of parent and child-reported symptoms, the Child SCAT5 provides limited clinical utility for evaluating concussion in children aged 5-9 years seen at an outpatient concussion specialty clinic. The cognitive screening and balance testing items were not useful in discriminating concussion. Parent and child-reported headache were the only Child SCAT5 items with excellent ability to differentiate concussion from controls in the age group.

Language: en