Related Experiment Video
Updated: Apr 29, 2026
A Multi-Modal Approach to Assessing Recovery in Youth Athletes Following Concussion
Published on: September 25, 2014
Method of symptom assessment influences cognitive, affective and somatic post-concussion-like symptom base rates
Shannon L Edmed1, Karen A Sullivan
1Clinical Neuropsychology Research Group, School of Psychology and Counselling, Queensland University of Technology , Brisbane , Australia and.
Primary Objective:
To investigate whether assessment method influences the type of post-concussion-like symptoms.
Methods And Procedures:
Participants were 73 Australian undergraduate students (Mage = 24.14, SD = 8.84; 75.3% female) with no history of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). Participants reported symptoms experienced over the previous 2 weeks in response to an open-ended question (free report), mock interview and standardized checklist (British Columbia Post-concussion Symptom Inventory; BC-PSI).
Main Outcomes And Results:
In the free report and checklist conditions, cognitive symptoms were reported significantly less frequently than affective (free report: p < 0.001; checklist: p < 0.001) or somatic symptoms (free report: p < 0.001; checklist: p = 0.004). However, in the mock structured interview condition, cognitive and somatic symptoms were reported significantly less frequently than affective symptoms (both p < 0.001). No participants reported at least one symptom from all three domains when assessed by free report, whereas most participants did so when symptoms were assessed by a mock structured interview (75%) or checklist (90%).
Conclusions:
Previous studies have shown that the method used to assess symptoms affects the number reported. This study shows that the assessment method also affects the type of reported symptoms.
