Parent-Reported Academic Outcomes After a Mild Traumatic Brain Injury in the Pediatric Population.
Andrew Kramer, Justin Foley, Colby Hansen and 1 others
PMID 39103203WHAT IT FOUND
Most children had no parent-reported grade change after mild brain injury.
Children with bleeding or swelling on imaging, or parents saying recovery was incomplete, were more likely to drop at least one letter grade.
Key findings
0155.4% of children had no grade change after injury and 28.1% had a negative grade change of at least one letter grade; negative changes were more common than positive changes.
02Children with complicated mTBI were significantly more likely to have negative grade changes than children with mTBI, with an odds ratio of 2.31.
03The predicted probability of negative grade changes was 0.17 for complete recovery, 0.37 or 0.38 for degree of recovery 0 to 6 or 7 to 9, and 0.50 for not yet recovered.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The survey had a 16.0% response rate, and respondents included a higher share of complicated mTBI than the full cohort (27.0% vs 18.6%), so results may overrepresent children who were still struggling. Grades were parent-reported and not verified by school records, and parents were asked to treat all subjects as one letter grade. The design was cross-sectional, so it cannot show that brain injury caused grade changes or that accommodations improved or harmed grades. Not all children had imaging, so some could have been misclassified as mTBI when they had intracranial findings. The survey did not ask about race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, or the treatment children received after injury.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest or financial disclosures.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that every child with mild brain injury will have a grade drop. Most children had no grade change, and this cross-sectional parent survey cannot prove cause.