Concussion reporting, return to learn, and return to play experiences in a sample of private preparatory high school students.

The sample was a convenience sample of private preparatory schools in the Northeastern United States, so it may not represent other private high school students. Concussion history, reporting behaviour, and return-to-school and return-to-play times were all self-reported and were not checked against medical records. Students may have misunderstood concussion symptoms or misremembered events. A previous study showed that 32% of this sample reported at least two or more sports-related concussions, so it may be unclear which concussion a student is describing. Questions about returning faster than they should have were subjective, so students may have judged the same recovery time differently. All schools had at least one full-time certified athletic trainer and had had a concussion management policy for at least 6 years, so students may have been more educated about concussion than typical students. The median age of first concussion was 10 years, and no student reported a first concussion after age 15, so many reported concussions may have occurred before high school and may not relate to the current sport. Many differences that reached statistical significance had small effect sizes, and the paper stated that none were practically significant.

The authors reported no declarations of interest. The survey data were collected as part of a project from Pink Concussions, a nonprofit organization.

Do not read the differences that reached statistical significance by sex, contact level, and grade as evidence of clinically meaningful differences in concussion reporting or recovery. The paper reported small effect sizes for these associations and all outcomes were self-reported and not validated.