@article{ref1,
title="Do sport-related concussions later in the season take longer to recover from?",
journal="Clinical journal of sport medicine",
year="2023",
author="Jo, Jacob and Hill, Tyler M. and Williams, Kristen L. and Prosak, Olivia L. and Amedy, Amad and Anesi, Trevor J. and Terry, Douglas P. and Zuckerman, Scott L.",
volume="ePub",
number="ePub",
pages="ePub-ePub",
abstract="OBJECTIVE: In a cohort of high-school football athletes with sport-related concussion (SRC), we sought to investigate the role of seasonality, defined as time of injury during a season, on recovery. <br><br>DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study. SETTING: Regional sport concussion center. PARTICIPANTS: High-school football athletes ages 14 to 19 -years old who sustained an SRC from 11, 2017 to 04, 2022. INTERVENTION: Athletes were divided into 3 groups based on seasonality: early, middle, and late season. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The primary outcomes were initial Post-Concussion Symptom Scale score and recovery, as defined by time to return-to-learn (RTL), symptom resolution, and return-to-play (RTP). Descriptive statistics, analysis-of-variance, t tests, and multivariable regressions were performed. <br><br>RESULTS: Of our cohort of 273 high-school football players who sustained an SRC, 97 (35.5%) sustained an SRC during early season, 107 (39.2%) during middle season, and 69 (25.3%) during late season. Compared with late-season concussions, early-season concussions took less days to symptom resolution (early = 11.5 ± 12.9 vs late = 25.5 ± 27.0, P = 0.03), but no differences were found in days to RTL (early = 5.3 ± 4.8 vs late = 7.2 ± 15.8, P = 0.51) and RTP (early = 13.5 ± 11.8 vs late = 23.0 ± 22.8, P = 0.08). Seasonality was not a significant predictor for any recovery metric in multivariable regressions. <br><br>CONCLUSION: Sport-related concussions occurring in the early third of the season took significantly less time to symptom resolution than those occurring in the later third of the season; however, this was not statistically significant in multivariable analyses. No association was observed between seasonality and time to RTL and RTP. A trend of worse recovery with concussions later in the season may be present.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="1050-642X",
doi="10.1097/JSM.0000000000001189",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/JSM.0000000000001189"
}