A - 09 An Examination of Pre-Existing Individual Characteristics and Concussion Presentations among Collegiate Athletes

Abstract

To examine the relationship between pre-existing individual characteristics and concussion outcomes among collegiate athletes. Archival data were analyzed from 142 collegiate athletes, ages 17–24 (M = 19.84, SD = 1.50), diagnosed with concussion based on cognitive impairment and symptom endorsement (CS; n = 88) or symptom endorsement alone (S; n = 54). Statistical analyses revealed no significant group differences for nearly all pre-existing individual characteristics analyzed, including sex, depressive symptoms, history of ADHD, baseline ImPACT performance, and balance. However, among baseline SCAT-5 symptom clusters, a chi-squared test of independence revealed a statistically significant association between group and endorsement of one or more symptoms of the cognitive fatigue cluster, χ2(2) = 5.82, p = 0.016, Cramer’s V = 0.20. Specifically, CS athletes were more likely to endorse cognitive fatigue than S athletes. No group differences were observed among other baseline SCAT-5 symptom clusters. Meanwhile, a Mann–Whitney U test indicated that post-concussive PHQ-9 scores were significantly higher for CS athletes (Mdn = 3.50) than S athletes (Mdn = 2.00), U = 1727.50, z = −2.59, p = 0.010. Moreover, CS athletes were more likely to endorse more post-trauma symptomatology than S athletes, in addition to demonstrating cognitive impairments. Compared to pre-existing individual characteristics, the severity of post-concussive symptoms appears to be a better indicator of concussion outcome in terms of whether athletes present with symptoms only versus symptoms and cognitive impairment. This suggests that these differences in outcome may be better explained by injury-related factors (e.g., severity of injury or impact).