Disclosures: Aimee Hite, BS: No financial relationships or conflicts of interest

Objective: This study sought to ascertain the prevalence of reporting concussion symptoms and continuing to play while experiencing symptoms in high school aged athletes.

Design: The study design was a retrospective cross-sectional approach.Setting : The survey employed a six-question online questionnaire.Participants : The population surveyed was Oakland University undergraduate students.

Interventions: There were no interventions.

Main Outcome Measures: This survey used five major measures of concussion symptomology (dizziness, headaches, confusion, nausea, and blacking out) in order to examine whether high school athletes are reporting and continuing to play with concussion symptoms.

Results: Of the 433 students surveyed, 299 reported experiencing one or multiple concussion symptoms. Of those who reported symptoms, 37.29% were not communicated to a supervising adult and 76.09% continued to play while experiencing symptoms. This contrast was largest in the confusion symptom category: 53.12% of students did not tell a supervising adult and 37.60% continued playing while experiencing confusion. Additionally, when stratifying the data by sport, football players were more likely to experience concussion symptoms than participants of any other sport.Conclusions: Our study reveals that many of the symptoms of concussion are not being recognized by high school student athletes. Additionally, these athletes returned to play in spite of symptoms that would require a non-return to play concern. Our study demonstrates the importance of educating students on concussion symptoms and publicizes the statistics on the current status of concussion symptoms reporting in high school athletes.

Level of Evidence: Level III

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PM&R Meeting Abstracts - https://pmrjabstracts.org/abstract/reporting-of-concussion-symptoms-in-high-school-aged-athletes/