The Effect of Concussion History On Physical Activity and Exercise Tolerance In Young Adults (2024)
Undergraduate: Bridget Treanor
Faculty Advisor: Johna Register-Mihalik
Department: Exercise & Sport Science
Concussion is a form of mild traumatic brain injury involving a biomechanical force sustained by an individual. Since little research exists on long-term concussion effects in non-athlete young adults, this study investigated if and how concussion history impacts physical activity levels (Aim 1) and exercise tolerance (Aim 2) among individuals aged 18-30.
58 participants (mean age = 22.40 ± 3.72 years; 22.4% with concussion history) reported typical weekly activity on the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (Aim 1) and completed the Buffalo Concussion Treadmill Test (BCTT) and a step-test as measures of exercise tolerance (Aim 2). Due to the non-parametric sample, Wilcoxon rank-sum tests were run separately for each outcome to compare concussion history groups. For all analyses, alpha-level was set to 0.05 a priori.
Despite the concussion history group reporting more physical activity (4683.42 ± 2673.78 weekly MET-minutes) than the group without concussion history (3467.56 ± 2310.83 weekly MET-minutes), the concussion history group performed less minutes and reached lower percentages of their age-predicted maximum heart rates (86.36 ± 8.03 percent for concussion history group; 89.17 ± 6.74 percent for group without concussion history, p = 0.087) on the BCTT. However, the differences between groups were not found to be significant for any Aim 1 or Aim 2 outcomes (for all tests, p > 0.05). While further research is needed in larger and more diverse samples, these findings can contribute to understanding the potential concussion history burden on exercise-related outcomes.