Providing a Medical Definition of Concussion: Can a Simple Intervention Improve Self-Reported Concussion History in Youth Athletes?

Objective: Providing a medical definition of concussion improves reliability of self-reported history of concussion in adult former athletes. We examine whether providing a medical definition of concussion to youth athletes increases the number of concussions reported, and whether reporting differs by age, sex, or sport type. Design: Cross-sectional survey. Setting: Concussion specialty clinic. Participants: Convenience sample of youth athletes (n = 301; mean age = 15.1 +/- 1.6 years) presenting for evaluation of sports-related concussion. Independent Variables: Number of concussions reported before and after presentation of the medical definition of concussion ("vignette"). Outcome Measures: Number of concussions reported after vignette. Paired-sample t test examined for main effect of the vignette on reporting behavior. One-way between-subjects analysis of variance with pairwise comparisons assessed for group differences. Results: Thirty percent of youth athletes reported an increase in number of concussions after vignette overall (P < 0.000). There was no significant difference in reporting behavior by age, sex, or sport type. Conclusions: Providing the medical definition of concussion, a simple and brief intervention, gives youth athletes context to understand when a concussion has occurred. This results in an increase in the number of concussions reported when gathering a self-reported history. Reporting behavior after a vignette does not differ across sex, sport type, or age of the athlete.