| Engagement in youth sports is an integral part of the school age period, with millions of children and adolescents engaging in a team or individual sport yearly. Within this athletics context, injuries are prone to occur, even ones that are not visible to the eye such as a mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) or concussion, which, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) a concussion is an “acute brain injury resulting from mechanical energy to the head from external physical forces,” (Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Committee, 1993).In an effort to make athletics safer for adolescents who are still developing physically and cognitively, there is a need for more research to improve detectability of an mTBI. Literature suggests that neuropsychological measures are able to detect changes immediately following a concussion and could be predictive of concussions moving forward. This study investigated the predictability of concussion diagnosis from four neurocognitive modules collected on the sidelines. There were64 high school athletes included in this study, 30 athletes who were diagnosed with a concussion and 34 athletes who were not diagnosed with a concussion. We hypothesized that each neuropsychological measure would be a positive significant predictor of the diagnostic outcome. Results showed that the graded symptom checklist (GSC) score, simple reaction time (SRT)score, choice reaction time (CRT) score, GSC change score, SRT change score, and CRT change score were each respectively positive significant predictors of concussion diagnosis. These clinically significant findings support the use of neuropsychological measures on the sideline. This addition could further improve diagnostic clarification of concussions and aid in future return-to-play and related decisions alongside clinical judgment within athletics.
Key Words: Neuropsychology, C3Logix, Concussion, Athletes |