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Worse health-related quality of life seen in adolescents with sports-related concussions vs fractures
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BOULDER, Colo.— Adolescents with a sports-related concussion had worse initial impairments in overall quality of life compared with adolescents who had a sports-related fracture, according to a speaker at the International Extreme Sports Medicine Congress.
“When we compared them to fracture patients, the adolescent concussion patients experienced greater impairments in cognitive, school and overall quality of life and the degree of impairment experienced by concussion patients is impacted by a bunch of clinical variables,” Kelly Russell, PhD, said during her presentation. “So, this gives physicians a good idea of who is potentially going to take longer to recover and who is going to have reduced quality of life.”
In a prospective study, Russell and colleagues compared health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in 135 young patients with sports-related concussions and in 96 young patients with sports-related fractures. Patients were 13 to 18 years old, attended school and were diagnosed with by their physicians within 30 days after injury. The HRQoL was based on physical, social, school and emotional QoL. Results on a cognitive function scale were also collected every 1 week to 2 weeks.
Russell said patients with sports-related concussions with a delayed recovery, recovered after 51 days; those with a normal recovery do so in 17 days; and those with sports-related fractures recovered in at least 31 days. Regarding initial QoL at their first appointment, patients who went on to have a delayed recovery had a HRQoL of 64 vs. a score of 75 for patients with fractures. Regarding recovery, patients with concussions who had a delayed or normal recovery had a HRQoL of 95. Patients with a sports-related fracture had a HRQoL of 84.
According to Russell, patients who had a concussion and had a normal recovery got better quicker compared to patients with fractures. Worse cognitive and school QoL was seen in patients with sports-related concussions vs. sports-related fractures.
When investigators compared QoL in patients who had concussions with control patients, they found those with concussions had worse physical, school and overall quality of life measures. Predictors for lower QoL included being female, having a higher initial post-concussion symptom scale score and a history of previous concussions. Patients who said their school was helpful in their recovery process had better QoL. Patients who had delayed recovery had worse school QoL. – by Monica Jaramillo
Reference:
Russell K. Youth health-related quality of life during recovery from sports-related concussion. Presented at: International Extreme Sports Medicine Congress; June 1-2, 2018; Boulder, Colorado.
Disclosure: Russell reports no relevant financial disclosures.