Self-Reported Lifetime Concussion Among Adults: Comparison of 3 Different Survey Questions.
Jill Daugherty, Lara DePadilla, Kelly Sarmiento and 1 others
PMID 31479084WHAT IT FOUND
28.9% of respondents reported at least one lifetime concussion.
Adding a definition with signs and symptoms did not change reporting. The finding applies to survey wording, not clinical assessment.
Key findings
01Overall, 28.9% of respondents reported at least one lifetime concussion.
02The percentage reporting lifetime concussion did not change in a meaningful way when the survey question wording changed.
03Lifetime concussion prevalence varied by sex, age, race/ethnicity, and educational attainment, but not by question wording within demographic groups.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they found
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What it does not show
Only 6427 of the 10 904 invited adults completed the survey. The sample was not nationally representative and may not apply to all US adults. The sample was disproportionately non-Hispanic white and had higher educational attainment than the US population. People were asked about past concussions at one time, so recall bias could affect responses. Lifetime concussion was self-reported and not checked against independent medical diagnosis. The study only tested whether adding more symptoms to a survey definition changed reporting. It did not validate the questions or test clinical assessment.
Declared interests
The CDC licensed the survey results from Porter Novelli after data were collected. The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the unchanged reporting as proof that clinicians can skip concussion signs and symptoms when assessing a patient. This was a survey of self-reported lifetime concussion, not a validated clinical assessment.