Effect of Exercise Recommendation on Adolescents With Concussion

Area of Science:

• Sports Medicine
• Neurology
• Adolescent Health

Background:

• Sports-related concussion is common in adolescents.
• Early exercise interventions are being explored for concussion recovery.
• The impact of early exercise on recovery duration, especially by sex, requires further investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the effect of a noncontact, subsymptom exacerbation early exercise recommendation on recovery from sports-related concussion in adolescents.
• To compare recovery times between an early exercise group and a control group.
• To analyze potential sex-based differences in recovery duration following early exercise.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective analysis of 187 adolescents (10-17 years old) diagnosed with symptomatic concussion within 30 days of injury.
• Patients were divided into an early exercise group (n=112) and a comparison group (n=75).
• Time to concussion recovery was the primary outcome measure, with separate analyses for males and females.

Main Results:

• The early exercise group experienced a significantly longer duration of concussion symptoms (18.5 days) compared to the comparison group (14 days; P = .002).
• Male adolescents, regardless of group, had a longer recovery time (19 days) than females (18 days).
• Early exercise recommendation significantly increased recovery time in male adolescents but showed no significant effect in female adolescents.

Conclusions:

• Recommending early, subsymptom exacerbation exercise may prolong recovery from sports-related concussion in male adolescents.
• The effect of this early exercise intervention on concussion recovery appears to be sex-dependent.
• Both groups recovered within the expected timeframe for concussion, suggesting early exercise does not impede overall recovery but may extend symptom duration in males.