The Influence of Kinesiophobia on Time to Clinical Recovery in Collegiate Athletes with Concussion

Background

Several factors such as acute symptom severity, premorbid anxiety, and depression have been associated with concussion recovery. Elevated kinesiophobia has been associated with recovery from musculoskeletal conditions, as well as increased reaction time and vestibular–ocular motor dysfunction following concussion. However, kinesiophobia has yet to be evaluated as a modifier of concussion recovery time.

Objectives

This study was designed to evaluate the role of acute kinesiophobia levels on days until clinical recovery in collegiate athletes with concussion. We hypothesized that collegiate athletes with elevated Tampa Scale of Kinesiophobia (TSK) scores would take a greater number of days to achieve clinical recovery compared with athletes with lower values.

Methods

Division I collegiate athletes diagnosed with a concussion (N = 113, 19.9 ± 1.5 years, 42% female) participated in this descriptive laboratory study. Participants were assigned to high [≥ 37 (H-TSK, n = 54)] or low [< 37 (L-TSK, n = 59)] TSK groups on the basis of the first TSK values recorded within 72 h of their concussion. Participants were also administered the Revised Head Injury Scale (HIS-r) to assess symptom severity within 72 h of injury. The Immediate Postconcussion and Cognitive Test (ImPACT) battery was administered at baseline and used to gather demographic variables such as biological sex, age, history of anxiety/depression, and concussion history, and as part of the athletes’ symptom-free assessment. Days until clinical recovery between H-TSK and L-TSK groups were compared using a Mann–Whitney U test. Spearman’s rank correlation coefficients were calculated to determine the relationship between TSK and days until clinical recovery in addition to other modifiers of recovery. Multiple linear regression was used to evaluate days until clinical recovery as a function of the TSK total score, controlling for the HIS-r and ImPACT variables.

Results

Days until clinical recovery was significantly longer in the H-TSK group (median difference = 2.5 days, p < 0.001) compared with the L-TSK group. A significant, moderate positive correlation between the TSK score and days to clinical recovery (ρ = 0.45, p < 0.001) was observed, which was also the strongest correlation among all variables. Our regression model demonstrated that for every point increase on the TSK, days until clinical recovery increased by 0.23 while controlling for total symptom severity, age, concussion history, psychiatric history, and biological sex (β = 0.23, p = 0.018). All other variables entered into the regression were not statistically significant.

Conclusions

Our data suggest that athletes with TSK scores above 37 within 72 h of a concussion had a greater number of days until clinical recovery when compared with athletes with TSK values below 37. The TSK score had the highest correlation with days until clinical recovery when compared with other known modifiers of recovery, including total symptom severity. The TSK score was also the strongest predictor of days until clinical recovery. Collectively, these findings suggest that the TSK score should be considered by healthcare professionals to help inform effective management strategies for collegiate athletes with concussion.