Related Experiment Video
Updated: Mar 30, 2026
A Multi-Modal Approach to Assessing Recovery in Youth Athletes Following Concussion
Published on: September 25, 2014
Young Athletes' Concerns About Sport-Related Concussion: The Patient's Perspective
Cynthia J Stein1, Robert MacDougall, Catherine C Quatman-Yates
1*Division of Sports Medicine, Department of Orthopaedics, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts; †Division of Occupational and Physical Therapy, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, Ohio; ‡Division of Sports Medicine, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, Ohio; §Sports Medicine Biodynamics Center and Human Performance Laboratory, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, Ohio; ¶Departments of Pediatrics and Orthopaedic Surgery, College of Medicine, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH; ‖The Micheli Center for Sports Injury Prevention, Waltham, Massachusetts; and #Tufts University Family Medicine Residency at Cambridge Health Alliance, Malden, Massachusetts.
Objective:
Few studies have examined the experience and concerns of the concussed athlete. The purpose of this study was to identify the most pressing concerns of athletes with concussion.
Design:
Cross-sectional survey of athletes who presented for evaluation of a new sport-related concussion during an 8-month period.
Setting:
Tertiary-level sports medicine division of a large academic pediatric medical center.
Participants:
One hundred twenty one patients (67 male, 54 female) aged 8 to 18 years who had sustained a sport-related concussion participated in the study by responding to "What is the worst thing for you about having a concussion?" on the study questionnaire. Questionnaires were completed in the clinic waiting room before the visit with a provider.
Intervention:
Inductive content analysis was used to identify themes in the responses to the study question.
Main Outcome Measures:
Age, sex, sport played at the time of the current injury, history of previous concussion, known contacts with concussion, and subjective report of worst aspect of concussion.
Results:
Seventy respondents (57.9%) cited symptoms, and 68 (56.2%) reported loss of activity as the worst part of concussion, including 17 (14.0%) who listed both symptoms and loss of activity.
Conclusions:
Over half of concussed athletes indicate that the most distressing part of the injury is loss of activities, which may result from symptoms of the injury itself and/or the prescribed treatment.
Clinical Relevance:
Health care providers should not underestimate the degree to which symptoms and loss of activities affect young athletes' general well-being. In addition to the negative impact of concussion symptoms, there is an obvious cost of physical, cognitive, and social activity restrictions for patients recovering from sport-related concussions that should be explicitly addressed.
