Gender Discrepancies in Persistent Symptom Presentation One-Month Post-Concussion in Youth Athletes

Undergraduates: Hannah Price, Christina Vander Vegt

Faculty Advisor: Johna Register-Mihalik
Department: Exercise & Sport Science

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Concussion in youth athletes may produce severe long-term developmental and cognitive problems. We examined the association between gender and individual persistent symptom presentation in young student-athletes in the primary care setting. A cross-sectional analysis of pediatric and adolescent athletes ages 8-18 years one-month after presenting to the primary care setting following sport-related concussion (SRC) consented to participate in the study (n=278; age=14.37¿¿2.08 years). Parents of the participant completed the Rivermead Post-Concussion Symptom Questionnaire (RPQ) at one-month follow-up (follow-up= 75.0%). Participant gender (male vs. female) served as the independent variable. Primary outcomes were presence of individual symptoms reported as worse at 1-month post-concussion than prior to the injury. Fisher¿¿¿s exact tests were utilized to examine the association between gender and individual 1-month symptom presentation. Two hundred and ten participants completed the RPQ, 118 were male (57%), and 89 were female, one individual did not report gender, and two individuals had incomplete demographic data. There was not a significant association between total number of symptoms endorsed as worse or the type of symptoms reported in males compared to females one-month following SRC (p<0.05). Gender does not appear to be associated with type of symptoms reported 1-month following SRC. Clinicians should be mindful of this information to ensure proper concussion management.